


Burning Summer

by IlloustriousTaco



Series: Turn of the Seasons [3]
Category: Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: Angst, Angst fast, Broken Characters, Captain Crazy Cakes, Cliffhangers, Evil Authors Club, F/M, Feels, Fluff, Fluffy start, M/M, Magical Core, Nightmares, North says ridiculous things, Other, Pranks and Practical Jokes, well broken one at least
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-10-27
Updated: 2015-05-25
Packaged: 2017-12-30 15:25:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 11
Words: 25,896
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1020301
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IlloustriousTaco/pseuds/IlloustriousTaco
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sequel to Courting Spring</p>
<p>Aster and the boys have been together for decades now, they're comfortable in their relationship, and things are good. Jack is the Herald of Winter and Jokul is the Nightmare King, and they may not stay out of trouble, but Aster would trust them with not only his own life, but the lives of any of the children under his care, he trusts them that much. </p>
<p>But while things are going well and the future looks bright, there is someone who is determined to put an end to all that cheerful outlook and steal the power of Fear for themselves.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Mischief Night

**Author's Note:**

> I am so sorry this took so long. First it just didn't want to write that well, then my computer broke when I had most of the first chapter written... I finally got it sent in to be repaired since its still under warranty, but its taking a while. Right now I'm borrowing my brother's computer since he's rather into GTA5 at the moment and hasn't been using it. 
> 
> Between that, getting used to using google docs to write my story, and my family being REALLY busy for Halloween (Yes, we're the crazy people at the end of the block who go ALL OUT decorating... I'll post pics once the last of the décor is up... lets just say we've got a dozen home made grave stones, (big ones), a thirty foot web on the roof with half a dozen spiders ranging in size from twenty feet to two feet, as well as a few dozen six inch glow in the dark spiders (My brain baby I'm so proud of my web), ghosts and witches, hanging skeletons, and a gallows in our yard. Signs all over the place both light up and not,... yea ALL OUT. Its slightly bigger than Christmas...) 
> 
> *tries to find track of the train of thought again* Right... very busy this month and cranky about a broken computer. 
> 
> I hope that the first chapter helps make up for it, and I'm probably going to be using NaNoWriMo to do this story instead of doing something original because I planned to have most of this written by now. I did finish the outline up through chapter sixteen as of the posting of the first chapter and the chapter outlines are getting longer, so hopefully that's a good thing. 
> 
> Long note... Enjoy and I hope to have the next chapter up relatively soon.

Jokul laughed high and shrill as his shadows chased the teenagers back towards their homes, and away from the cartons of eggs, toilet paper, and cans of spray paint they had dropped. Their fear was delicious, a true treat that he indulged in once or twice a year only. 

There was a bitter nip to the cool autumn air, a sure sign that his other half was having fun scaring human children as well. It was almost midnight, so anyone left out wandering was fair game to the spirits of frost and dark, and there were a fair few of them on this night. 

Jokul wasn’t sure exactly when Mischief Night had become a tradition, but he did know that the types who indulged in it were his fair prey. Jokul had taken to the harvest holiday with a vengeance, enjoying all the variations he could find and finding more and more of his ‘believers’, or humans who could see him, during this time of year. 

Long shadow claws raked at the fleeing teenagers, catching slightly at their clothing and tugging, drawing out more screams and terror from the humans. It was delightful, and his voice wasn’t the only voice laughing in the wind. 

Jokul let them escape as he traversed the shadows to the nearby roof where Jack waited for him. 

“Having fun?” the winter sprite asked, mischief in his bright blue eyes as he watched the same humans fleeing Jokul. 

“Well duh. I’m almost done for the night though, there aren’t many more people out and about and the ones that are there are doing the same thing I’m doing. I think I won't harass the lawmen though.” He said, nodding to the black and white car pulling down the street, no doubt summoned by reports of teenage screams. 

“Probably a good choice. They’re just doing their jobs after all,” Jokul’s other half said with a nod, before grinning very brightly indeed. “I think Bunny’s waiting for us to get back. He said something about meeting up with the Guardians for some kind of fall party, since its right before North’s busy season and all.” 

“But its in the middle of OUR busy season,” the Nightmare King whined, a little grumble in his throat as he glared up at the full moon watching the proceedings ‘serenely’. He was still cranky with the cantankerous old bastard. 

“I don’t think North even realizes that we’ve laid claim to All Hallows and the associated holidays,” Jack said thoughtfully, glancing upwards at the moon as well. “I’m pretty sure he would be more nervous around us if he knew. Because he’s responsible that way and we’re ‘young’.” 

“Also, I’m still, well me.” Jokul knew his words would make Jack flinch even before he spoke, but he said them anyways, a little bit peeved at the fact that any of the time he had claimed over the humans was being diverted to something else. 

“I’m enjoying their fear just as much, you know,” Jack growled, glaring before he rolled his eyes dramatically. “Come on. I’m pretty sure Aster has something special planned for tonight after the party.” 

The lascivious look combined with his waggling eyebrows made Jack look extremely funny, and Jokul couldn’t help the burst of laughter that he let out at the sight. 

“It had better be something good. Or I’ll mutiny. I’ve got a whole fleet of Nightmares, so don’t think I won't follow through.” 

“I promise, its something good,” the frost sprites statement was accompanied by rolling eyes, but it was certainly enough to get Jokul into a downright jovial mood. 

“Right then. What are we waiting for? We’ve got the engraved invitation, right? Lets go!”

* * *

Aster grinned as his two lovers arrived at the North Pole, taking in the sight of them both, so similar and yet so very different. 

Jack rode the wind, his staff leaving trails of frost on all objects nearby as he came in for his landing, his silver hair mussed and tastefully disheveled. He had taken a liking to simple clothes, wearing a dark blue hooded sweater in one of the newer styles, and a pair of pants whose simplicity was belied by the way they curved and fit tight to every inch of the boy’s long legs. With his pale, almost luminescent skin and bright blue eyes, he was a vision of winter personified. 

On the other hand, Jokul rode in on one of his prized nightmares, frost ferns covering her from nose to tail. He had done something to his black hair so that it was much longer than Jack’s, brushing his shoulders in a more tame, cultured do than his other half’s. Where Jack wandered around in a sweater and pants, Jokul’s clothes looked like they had actually been tailored for him. A pair of black slacks were topped by an immaculate dark blue button up shirt that matched his mischievous eyes to the perfect hue. With the pale blue tint to his skin and the hint of fangs in his smile, he looked like a modern vampire from one of those trashy teen novels that the boys had been bringing back to the warren lately to laugh about. 

It was hard not to compare the two boys, but if Jack was a bright winter day playing in the snow, then Jokul was the deadly winter night under a dark storm cloud. 

The delightful part was that they were both his mates, something that still amazed him whenever he thought about it. He still wasn’t sure what they saw in a tired old Pooka like him, but he was never going to be the one to push them away. 

“Hey’ya Kangaroo!” The snow sprite grinned and bounded over to him even as Jokul dismounted from his Nightmare and sauntered casually over. “You didn’t start the party without us did you?”

“Nah. The party wouldn’t be complete without you starkers little drongos anyways,” the Easter Bunny said with his own grin, pulling Jack into a hug before reaching out and snagging Jokul as well. It might have been greedy, but he wanted his paws on both of them whenever he could get them. 

Not that they spent much time apart unless they were busy with their duties. 

“Hows the harvest festival work going?” He asked, knowing full well what his mates were up to, Jack with his work painting the leaves and encouraging plants to ripen, and Jokul with his self appointed tasks involving the harvest festivals. 

“Pretty good actually,” Jack stated, although his nightmare half simply scowled and glared. 

“What he means, is pretty good for being interupted the day before my big night!” The Nightmare King grumbled and glowered, but Aster caught a hint of smirk in his tone and face. “I’ve got so many plans and there’s this thing down in New Orleans that has promise. Not to mention the sheer number of ‘haunted’ houses I wanted to, well lets just say I’ve been adding my own touches here and there.” 

The smirk was full blown now, reaching the boy’s dark blue eyes and seeming to light them up from within in a way that made Aster’s loins tight. 

Then again, both Jokul and Jack excelled at getting him worked up, whether they meant to or not. He had finally come to terms with it about a decade after they got together and the other Guardians found out about Jokul’s Nightmare shard status. They had all approached him when he wasn’t around his lovers, asking him if the boy was really stable. 

Aster had always had the same answer for them, that he had never met anyone who tried so hard to hide such a tender, fragile, caring heart. For all that the boy put on airs about being evil, Aster trusted him around the human children as much as he trusted anyone, including himself. 

“Мои друзья на воздушной подушке здание! Come in, come in! We are starting party soon! Tooth and Baby Tooth have already arrived, and Sandy is on way! Yeti have laid out spread for the ages and although elves are still under boot, they are less annoying than usual!” North bellowed, interrupting Aster just as he was contemplating skipping the party entirely and absconding with his lovers back to the Warren for some quality time together. 

“North…” Aster kept it mostly under his breath, but both of the Frost boys heard, smirking and giggling as was their habit. “You bloody galah, what’s the rush?” 

“I am thinking that if I do not bring you into party room, Пасхальный заяц and Frost boys will disappear.” The knowing twinkle in North’s eyes would have made a lesser being blush, but as the boys had a distinct lack of shame when it came to their lover, and Aster had plenty of fur to hide it, no one saw a thing. 

“Yea yea, lets get going then. The sooner we get the party started, the sooner we’ll see Baby Tooth!” Jack said enthusiastically, bounding ahead of the Christmas Guardian and the Easter Guardian.

* * *

The party went about as well as it possibly could have considering who was attending and the available entertainments. Jokul and Baby Tooth had disappeared almost immediately, but Jack knew they had spent a lot of time in the rafters plotting together. Of course, Jack had nothing to do with the patches of ice laid down for yeti and elves in places where, although it would get annoying after a while, it was amusing to watch them slip and slide here and there. 

He certainly had nothing to do with the way that the reindeer were all loose in the main workshop, knocking things over and nibbling on any food that had been carelessly left out. Of course, since there wasn’t supposed to be food on the workshop floor in the first place after that debacle a decade ago, he also had nothing to do with that. 

However he would admit to being the driving force behind keeping North and the others busy so they didn’t notice all these little things he had nothing to do with. 

It only made things more hilarious when North noticed all the little things adding up to a mess of proportions that made Jack proud. Tooth and Sandy had both been watching the mess stack up instead of alerting North to it, and Jack was certain that both of them were giggling as North made his way through the mess, organizing yeti and elves to get started cleaning up. When he found out that half the Yeti were iced to their work places, he turned on Jack with a furious glint in his eyes. 

That was the frost spirit’s cue to get out of there, and there was no way he wasn’t making Jokul take the fall with him. His staff caught the Nightmare King’s leg, dragging him out of the shadows in the rafters as North barreled after both of them, shouting incomprehensible Russian. 

Jack had no idea why he seemed to be shouting about purple eels and giant dodo birds, but then again his grasp of Russian still wasn’t that good even after one or two lessons with Grandfather Winter. 

Baby Tooth had peeled off long ago, North still chasing after Jack and Jokul, which was actually making a bigger mess than the pranks that Jokul and Baby Tooth had pulled. It made Jokul cackle like a mad man, and they made several passes through the workshop with North hot behind them before something landed on both of them, pushing them down into a tunnel that they hadn’t even seen open up. 

Jack was still giggling when he turned into Aster’s grip, dropping a kiss on the leoporidae’s nose. The pooka’s hole had closed up almost as soon as the three of them had dropped into it, and there wasn’t so much of a mess that the other three guardians wouldn’t be able to handle it. 

“Did you see his face when we pushed Phil behind us to slow him down?” Jokul was giggling even harder than Jack was, wiggling out of the tangle of limbs to drape himself over Aster’s back, nuzzling into the Pooka’s neck. “I can’t believe he got so worked up.”

“Christmas is only a few months away,” Aster said, and Jack grinned as he nuzzled into Aster’s neck from the front. “He gets as stressed out about that as I do about Easter… Ooohh… cold hands.”

Aster’s voice was definitely not a complaint as Jack and Jokul’s hands carded through his fur, over his ribs and down his long sides. 

“Then he shouldn’t have thrown his party on Mischief Night.” Jokul growled, and Jack shuddered, nuzzling into Aster again. “Now… I was promised a reward for coming.” 

“A reward….? Strewth! You wrecked the workshop, turned the reindeer loose, and I don’t know what you did to Baby Tooth but she was so wired last time I saw her that she was vibrating in Tooth’s hands. Vibrating. I know the little sheila has a lot of energy, but she was seriously buzzing.” Aster’s voice was a breathy moan, especially as Jack’s lips found their way to his chin, the winter sprite nuzzling the Pooka as distractingly as he could. 

He was indeed rewarded for his efforts when the Pooka lost his train of thought, capturing Jack’s lips in a deep kiss. The Pooka tasted like sunshine and earth, something growing and green and oh so exotic to Jack’s senses. He teased and kissed deeply, the pooka’s long tongue stroking in and out of Jack’s mouth making the boy want more, only to release Jack as Jokul started growling and submitting the other Frost boy to the same treatment. 

He wasn’t supposed to get jealous, but Jack still nipped at Aster’s shoulder when he felt like the other two had been kissing too long. Not that he had a valid reason to complain, Aster had been making short work of both his clothes and Jokul’s, systematically stripping both boys as they kissed. 

Feeling warm fur against his cold skin, soft in all the right places without being in the way when he reached forward to stroke his lover, was pure heaven. He reached around Aster, determined that he was going to help make his other half nude as well. It was fairplay after all, hands, paws, mouths, teeth all working in tandem. 

It wasn’t long until they were all in the same state of undress, and between skin only slightly warmer than his own and Aster’s heavenly fur, Jack certainly wasn’t going to be holding out for very long.

* * *

Mischief Night. 

It was such a perfect time to start, with so many tasty little morsels trying to convince themselves that they weren’t afraid. Or worse, enjoying their fear. 

“Come on Pippa! Look at the ghosts and spiders they decorated with!” One enthusiastic little morsel was saying, dragging his friend along. A whole group of them were wandering around looking at the decorations, enjoying a time that should have been fear and hard work. Planning the optimal ‘trick or treating’ routes. 

These puny humans should have been terrified that they wouldn't be able to harvest enough to survive the coming winter. They should have feared the monsters that would come through the dark and devour them in their sleep, the horrors that would maim them and leave them worse off than dead. 

Yes, they would learn to fear again, starting with this one who was so excited. Crimson smoke, unseen and un-heeded caressed the boy’s face even as his friend called out to him. 

“Slow down Jamie! I cant keep up.” She said it with laughter in her voice, laughter that would soon enough turn to screams of terror.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter three is well under way, and hopefully I'll pull ahead with what's written soon. 
> 
> This is coming along nicely, and I hope you enjoy it, please remember to review and feed my creativity :3

Sandy couldn’t stop chuckling about the pranks at North’s little get together even  a week later, the Christmas spirit having been pouting and put out at the ‘damages’ done to his workshop. It had actually been surprisingly easy to clean up once the Yeti had been melted free, though to hear North grumble and ‘curse’ it had been much harder than his very own holiday. 

He was still ruminating on the amusement of the situation when he first noticed something was wrong. His dream sand wasn’t reaching all of the children it was supposed to be finding, and it sat swirling above the homes of those it couldn’t get to. 

Curious and worried, Sandy let himself into one of the homes, frowning as he saw the child tossing and turning in her sleep, making whimpering noises of fear and pain. Since the little girl hadn’t been scheduled for a Nightmare, and none of Jokul’s horses were around anyways, Sandy reached out, intending to smooth away the bad dreams and make way for good ones. 

If he could have screamed at the sudden pain that went up his arm, he would have, jerking away from the child and the red smoke now coming out of her mouth and nose as she breathed. Something was wrong, very, very wrong. 

The child was trapped in nightmares, and Sandy’s power wasn’t helping, had in fact seemed to make it worse, so there was only one thing to do. 

He needed to gather the other Guardians and find out exactly how far spread this epidemic was, and perhaps even Jokul to see if there was any way that the Fearling Boy could help them. 

The former wishing star wasn’t precognitive, but he had a sinking feeling in his heart that they would need all the help they could get against this new threat.

* * *

The autumn air was crisp, and although most of the Harvest Festivals that featured his trademark fear were over, there was still so much to do and seemingly never enough time for Jokul to do it in. He had been careful not to miss his holiday with Bunny and Jack, leaving both of them sleeping in the nest while he headed out to add his finishing touches to the Haunted houses and other fun attractions that the humans had come up with. 

More and more the holiday he had laid claim to was growing and had been growing for the last several decades. He loved it of course, and was having way too much fun scaring everyone, most of whom wanted to be scared in the first place. It was exhilarating to actually be wanted, and people were more and more understanding that Fear in itself wasn’t evil, and could even be helpful. 

He had found a way to smuggle a copy of The Gift of Fear into the Snow Queen’s office, with a note suggesting taking it to the Moon the next time she felt like visiting. 

Since she hadn’t said anything about it the next time he saw her, and no one else seemed to be willing to bring it up, Jokul was going to let that brew for a few more years before he pushed at it. 

Jack was still very busy, having joined him a few hours later on October thirty first, so that they could have fun together. Jack had bought the bitter chill to add just the right touch to Jokul’s horrors and scares, making everything come together in a rush. 

Of course, now Jack was busy while Jokul was adding little touches here and there, aiding Winters Herald instead of stepping up as the Nightmare King. Everything seemed to be going so well, and if things stayed clear, they would be able to ambush Bunny in the Tunnels tonight, maybe even convince him to come to the Lair this time instead of all of them ending up in the Warren. 

Jokul was just contemplating his Pooka mate and his other half, and all the fun that could be had when they were together, when a bright green blur literally flew into his hands, vibrating and chirping at him in alarm. Considering that the energy drink they had split at Norths party should have worn off long ago, Baby Tooth was upset about something. 

After listening to her for a few moments, he was upset about something too, quickly summoning his favorite Nightmare in order to find Jack and meet up at North’s once again, this time for something far more serious than a mere party.

* * *

“I’m telling you! The boy’s have got nothing to do with this!” Aster’s voice was a low growl, half rage and half hurt as he got into North’s face. 

“Bunny, you cannot argue that this falls right under Jokul’s talents!” the old Cossack yelled in exchange. “Does not matter if boys had anything to do with it, though am still not sure about Nightmare boy’s methods!” 

“Jokul hasn’t done anything wrong!” 

“Bunny, Sandy said that the kids were trapped in nightmares.” Tooth’s voice was a little jarring, and Aster felt betrayal when he looked over at her, slumped in on herself and unable to meet his eyes. 

“Jokul wouldn’t do that to anyone,” Aster wished he had a way to explain why he was so sure of this, but even after decades he hadn’t been able to convince North that Jokul truly meant no harm. For all that he caused fear wherever he went, from everything that Aster had seen about the boy he was more likely to act to protect the sprogs than to hurt them. “Besides, if you accuse Jokul of that you have to accuse Jack at the same time.” 

“Bah! Jack has no ability to harm the littles,” North’s response was immediate, and Aster rolled his eyes at how well the young winter spirit had North wrapped around his finger. 

“North, you bloody galah, do you realize how starkers that sounds? You want to accuse Jokul of having something to do with the Nightmares, but you think Jack wouldn’t be involved,” he had no idea how often he had told them that Jack and Jokul, for all that they were his mates and very distinct from each other, were the same person. 

“Bunny, you are too close to judge objectively. My belly is telling me that something horrible is happening… and Nightmare boy is at center of it.” North’s words were a tired drone, the Christmas spirit seeming to deflate as he spoke. 

“So you think that I’m responsible for the believers being hurt?” the actic tundra was warmer than Jokul’s voice, and all four Guardians jumped in their skins as the Nightmare King stepped out of the shadows, Jack Frost silent on his heels. 

“We’ve spent almost seventy years playing by your rules, holding ourselves back because we wanted your approval.”

“Screw your approval.”

“We’ve done everything you wanted us to, given all that we could to ensure that we didn’t step on your toes, any of you,” bright and dark blue eyes swept the gathered Guardians, rage visible on twin faces, even as shadow and black sand began to form around both of them. 

“Is not like that! You are Nightmare, and obviously…” North tried to interupt them, but the wave of black frost that slicked over the ground when Jack slammed the but of his staff down made him quiet. 

“We’ve tried so hard to fit in with you…”

“And you won’t even give us the benefit of a doubt…”

**”Screw you,”** both boys spoke at the same time, sounding for just a moment like they had before they became two instead of one, their voices overlapping in perfect harmony. 

Then they were gone, back into the shadows, and Aster was dredging up every curse he could think of, both in old Pookan and his new native Aussie. 

Sandy was looking on wide eyed and North’s face was matching his pants by the time Aster started winding down. 

“... boggan dickheaded Fuckwit!” Aster was panting by the time he was done. but he counted himself to be in good control still considering that he hadn’t started destroying furniture or tried to strangle North. 

“Calm down Bunny, its alright.” Tooth’s words were soothing and she was hovering next to him, but thankfully the sheila didn’t try to touch him. 

“How can I calm down?! You just accused Jack and Jokul of harming the children! I’ve never seen them so mad!”

“I accuse them of nothing!” North finally shouted, breaking through Aster’s angry tirade. “Boy’s are important to whatever is happening! Nightmare boy is at center of it! I did not say it was his doing!” 

“Bloody hell North, thats the way it fucking came off! If you didn’t want to accuse them, you should have phrased it a hell of a lot differently!” Aster was still cursing like the old warrior he was, and he cursed again under his breath as he tried to get a better hold of his temper. 

“Look, this is a huge misunderstanding. We’ll figure out what's going on, and the apologize to the boys, both of them.” Tooths words were gentle, but there was a hint of steel that made Aster think maybe she was getting sick of him and North arguing. 

None of them noticed Sandy’s quiet fuming.

* * *

The crisp air cooled further by winds racing north from the southernmost part of the world did surprisingly little to cool the tempers of Jack and Jokul. 

The fury of ice and shadow left horrifying statues in its wake, thirty feet tall and jagged with enough malice expressed in every line that when mortals found this place, they would attribute it to the scariest place on earth. It was a mystery what they would blame the jagged spires of blackened ice and the deep gouges left by frozen fury on. 

Jack was glad they had come here instead of going back to their lair in North America, which while not as ‘clean’ as it had been after the Guardians took a hand, was more to clean up than the antarctic wastes. Out here, no one would ever find the evidence of Jokul cutting loose. 

They would never find the evidence of Jack’s fury. 

The fact that it was mostly Jack’s fury was going to go without saying, for a long time. 

“Its only to be expected right? I’m a Nightmare, no matter how ‘good’ I am that’s never going to change,” Jokul growled, sending out another spike of shadow and ice, meeting Jack’s power half way to create another monstrously tall horror. 

“No! Its not to be expected! We’ve been playing by their rules ever since Pitch Black died and we took his place! We’ve been following _Lunnanoff’s_ rules for crying out loud! Its not fair that they still don’t trust us!” Jack’s next release of power shattered three of the previous ‘statues’, merging with Jokul’s power to make another mind breaking creation. 

“No, its not ‘expected’ or ‘unavoidable’, its stupid that we’ve spent most of a century following their rules, doing what they wanted us to, and they still won’t give us a chance.” 

Jack’s voice was no longer a shout, and his power was no longer being channeled into the fierce blasts of rage all around him. Instead it was bleeding off into the ice beneath his feet, pushing jagged spikes of dark ice higher and higher in a perfect circle around him. 

“Well… when you put it that way, fuck that shit,” Jokul mused after a moment, a slow grin spreading across his face even as Jack felt him damp down on his fear. “Seriously, fuck their rules. They may think I’m at the center of this, but who cares? It hurts, but that shit happens. Lets find out what's really going on and rub it in their faces,” he said with a downright nasty grin. 

The grin that Jack returned was just as nasty.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm seriously enjoying writing this, I love this story. I love Jack, I love Jokul, I love Bunny and the other Guardians... Manny is still a jerk in this universe, but *shrugs* they're not perfect. 
> 
> I'm having fun trying to write this, and I really hope people enjoy reading it as well.
> 
> Also, don't hold it against him, its a memory twisted much worse than the reality...

The room was cold for a human place, and Jokul shook his head at the chill in the air as he wandered the hallways looking for the children. To say that it had taken the better part of a few days to figure out the pattern of infection of the children falling into these magical comas would barely be accurate. He had spent every moment searching for a reason, a rhyme or why, that the kids had fallen into the enchanted sleep. 

It was definitely magic, they didn’t need to ask anyone for confirmation about that part considering even Sandy had thought they had something to do with it. Beyond that it was surprisingly hard to narrow down the symptoms and the how, which might have been part of why the Guardians had been in such a state when everything had occurred. 

Jack was still furious, and they had even been avoiding Aster for the last few days as they tried to get their temper to even out somewhat. It was painful being away from their mate, but they were more scared that they would do something to hurt Aster irreparably if they went to him while they were this upset. 

Since that was the last thing they wanted, it seemed as if they would be avoiding their mate for the foreseeable future. 

On the other hand, with this mysterious curse spreading, it seemed like they would have plenty to keep them busy until they had a chance to calm down. Most of the children, and the curse invariably hit the children, had simply fallen into a deep nightmare riddled coma, one after the other, over the course of the last week or so. It had started Halloween night, which might argue for something from beyond this world meddling. 

Jokul had seen first hand the effect that the curse had on Sandy’s dreamsand when he had come across one of the newest victims, he had seen the way that the sand soothed the child for just a few moments, before the little girl was dragged even deeper into nightmares that made even Jokul shudder in revulsion. 

No child should have ever had to suffer under those horrors. 

Sandy was a quick learner though, and Jokul knew that the former wishing star was being very careful not to send his dream sand to the cursed children if he could help it. 

And help it he definitely could. 

Still, that meant that Jokul and Jack were no closer to finding exactly where the curse had come from. It was spreading to a pattern though that Jack had noticed on their second day tracking it. 

One day the children would be fine, playing with other children and ignoring the fact that their circle of friends was ever dwindling, and that night they would succumb to the curse, slipping into their very own nightmare riddled coma. 

The next day, the children they had interacted with would play, and pretend they didn’t miss their friends, and that night, fall into a coma. 

It wasn’t all the kids who interacted with each other, but it was a large enough number of children that it seemed they would all succumb to the curse before Jokul and Jack got anywhere near solving the problem. 

Jack was currently tracking the kids, trying to find out which ones were most likely to succumb and how to slow or stop the spread. Jokul had taken a slightly different approach, narrowing down the suspects by trying to find the first child to have fallen into a coma. It had taken him several days to narrow it down, and the last few children he had checked showed no signs of being the first cursed. 

The Nightmare King could feel that he was getting closer though, narrowing down the source of the curse with every child he checked. 

He always left behind a nightmare to guard the child after he checked them. While Sandy’s power seemed to feed into the curse and become something even worse, Jokul’s power was able to mitigate the damage, although no matter how hard he tried he was unable to banish the curse from its victims. 

If he could have banished the curse, even at the cost of leaving a nightmare with every single child in the world, he would have in a heartbeat. 

Shaking his head, he looked around again, the sterile pastels of the hallway staring back at him as he headed into the childrens section of the hospital. The adults couldn’t sense him at all, but most of the children were asleep, buried in the curse even in the middle of the day. The children that weren’t asleep shuddered as he passed them, drawing in on themselves, quiet and outside of notice. 

Ordinarily he would take their fear, they didn’t need it in this place, where the atmosphere was already heavy enough to burden anyone, let alone children who barely understood why they were here, or worse, children who knew exactly why they were here. Right now though he could feel the power of the curse bearing down, and the children were safer quiet and unobtrusive. He could taste their fear, and feel it as a buffer between the kids and the curse, so he left it to them, a gift to keep them safe. 

It was delicious and exhilarating, leading him directly to the boy steeped through with the most malicious magic that Jokul had ever seen. The former fearling prince barely needed to look around, he could tell that the boy was the center of it all, the first to have fallen to the curse.  

The brown haired boy didn’t look particularly special laying in the hospital bed as nurses bustled in and out, checking the IV lines taped to his forearm among other things. The boy had been asleep for just over a week, and they couldn’t figure out why, couldn’t find the reason that the boy was in a coma. 

And none of them could see the fine red mist on his breath. 

Of course, none of the nurses could see him either, so that meant he had probably found the first child cursed, although not nearly fast enough. Jokul was watching as the first marks began to show on the boy’s arms, looking like someone had grabbed the boy’s arm far too tightly and shaken him. It made Jokul furious just seeing it. If this child wasn’t the first one cursed, then the odds of him finding someone cursed before this child had dwindled with his patience. 

“Looks like its time to get this started then. I think in this case, the best way to examine the curse might be to take a look from inside.” Jokul said, his manic grin showing his fangs for a moment as he reached forward with his power. 

Sandy would never have actually shown him these tricks, the little dreamweaver too cautious of his Nightmare nature, but even from having it done to him only once, Jokul was a fast learner. It only took him a few moments to figure out the odd twist of magic that would let him into the boy’s nightmare. 

It was a jarring change going from the stark, quiet white of the hospital to the middle of the child’s nightmare. It was dark, and there was indistinct yelling nearby, an angry male voice and a crying female voice. 

Father and Mother, the boy’s mind supplied, a whisper of fear and pain that led Jokul through the darkness, even as loud sirens made themselves known. From an outsider’s perspective, the nightmare didn’t seem so bad, but Jokul could feel the boy’s anxiety and unhappiness as he pushed  his way through. The closet door, standing by itself and the only thing visible in the darkness seemed at once out of place and the most natural thing in the world. 

Since it wasn’t Jokul’s head, both possibilities were probably true. 

The boy was huddled in the bottom of the closet, knees drawn to his chest, brown hair messy and tears streaming down his face. He looked up when Jokul opened the door, scrambling back and sulking in great gulps of breath in between his sobs. 

“Who… who are you? Leave me alone!” The boy sobbed, burying his face and trying to pull away from Jokul, and the Nightmare King winced, before kneeling down in the doorway. 

“I’m Jokul Frosti. I’m here to help you.” He said, in as soothing a voice as he could manage, though judging from the boy’s reaction he was far from his mark. “Why don’t you tell me who you are?” 

The boy’s wide brown eyes peeked at him from over his knees, his arms wrapped around the lower half of his face as the boy got his sobs under control. “I’m Jamie… Jamie Bennet… are you here to take my daddy away?” 

“Why would I take your daddy away?” Jokul asked, still trying to keep his voice as close to soothing as he could get. 

“He hit mommy… she might loose my little sister.” There was a strangled sob halfway through the boy’s words, and Jokul bit his tongue to keep his temper in check, looking at the boy’s bruised arms, so much worse here in the nightmare than in the waking world. 

“He won’t do that again, Jamie.” Jokul didn’t know how it had played out to give the boy nightmares, but he did know that he had to keep the boy calm and soothed for now. “I can guarantee it Jamie, but I need you to do something for me. I need you to face your nightmare.” 

“Nightmare?” Jamie looked confused at Jokul’s words, but the former fearling prince merely grinned, offering his hand to the still cowering boy. 

“Nightmare Jamie, you’re alseep and trapped in a very bad dream, but I can help you.” Jokul explained, grinning brightly as Jamie finally took his hand. 

“How?” Jamie sniffled, rubbing at his running nose. “The only way to get away from a Nightmare is to wake up. I... I can't wake up.” There was panic in the boy's voice that Jokul cut off by pulling him into a tight hug, as soothing as a creature of fear could be. 

He waited a few moments, patting circles in the boy's back as the boy's breathing calmed again. 

“No, you can't wake up right now, and that's why I'm here. I need to know why you can't wake up so that I can help,” Jokul said, pulling the boy to arm length and looking into wide brown eyes. “I need to know how your Nightmare started.” 

Jamie nodded, looking around the closet. “Its the same, but its been so long. It was before Sophie was born. The police came...” 

Just as the boy finished speaking there were gunshots, echoing through the darkness and into the closet, making Jamie drop, covering his head again and whimpering. Jokul sighed, dropping to one knee to pull the boy into an embrace again, surprised at the way the boy leaned into him despite shuddering in fear. 

“This is going to be hard, and I'm sorry I have to ask this of, you, but I need to you take me to the beginning of your nightmare.” Jokul said, and Jamie nodded, closing his eyes. 

Within moments, the world had warped around them, and Jokul watched as the boy and his mother sat at a table, talking to each other. The woman was obviously pregnant, and had deep pockets under her eyes, worry apparent in her face. It was early evening, and she was leaning across the table to hold the little boy's hand, talking to him when the door slammed open, a tall, angry brown haired man yelling as he came into the room. He was yelling at the woman, and Jamie tried to get between him and his mother, wide brown eyes scared. 

When the tall man grabbed Jamie by the arm, and threw him aside to continue yelling at the woman, Jokul tried to interfere, angry at both himself for asking to see the nightmare, and at the man, Jamies father. Jamie was no longer aware of him though, and he passed through both of them with a quiet curse. The woman yelled at the man, only for him to backhand her away, and she fell against a counter with a yell. 

Jamie saw his father reaching on top of the fridge then, and he turned and ran, though Jokul stayed to watch, clenching his teeth and tightening his fsts as he tried to figure out a way to break the nightmare cycle, angry that he had initiated this. Jamies father had a gun, and was waving it at the pregnant woman menacingly, and Jokul wanted to just smack the man into the next week. 

Jamie was hiding in the closet then, and probably wouldn’t have been able to see the same thing Jokul did next anyways, a fine red mist seeping into the room from every doorway or crack in the walls. There were vaguely unsettling shapes making themselves out of mist, before fading away again as they worked their way into the 'room', and towards the closet where Jamie now hid. 

“No you don't,” Jokul growled, reaching forward to grab the shapes and pull them forcefully away from the boy if he had to, but his hands passed right through them much to his annoyance. “God damnit,” his voice was a very annoyed growl, especially as the red fog slipped through the cracks to the closet. “No. You. Don't.” He growled again, bringing his command over fear and shadow to bear, trying to harden the nightmare against the insidious crimson curse, because what else could this be when it made the hair on _his_ neck stand up and his skin crawl? 

It didn't do any good, the unsettling shapes of the mist seemingly laughing at him as he tried again and again to find some way to keep it away from Jamie. 

There was literally nothing that Jokul could do to combat the curse from here, and the impotence of his power when he needed it the most was infuriating. He snarled as he tried one last time to reach the red mist before it steeped into the closet. 

The whimpers of the child trapped inside only fueled his rage further, but he was well aware that his anger alone could do nothing to solve this predicament. Instead, the sobbing whimpers of the child gave him an idea, and a familiar, nasty grin lit his features as he looked derisively at the mist one more time before moving to the closet directly.

* * *

Jamie shuddered at the wail of sirens outside of his tiny sanctuary, sobbing as he heard the gunshots go off again. This couldn't be real, his daddy had never actually hurt anyone. The screams and sobs of his mother out in the kitchen belied his faith, and he sobbed into his knees and tried to push deeper into the closet, determined not to be found, and not to let the crimson puddle seeping under the door touch him. 

“Jamie, you have to fight it.”

He couldn't fight it, he had to get away from it, away from the blood, and away from his father and there was no way he could help his mother or his little sister. 

“You can help them. You're the only one who can here.” 

How could he be the only one when he was so weak, and alone, and so very scared. 

“Your fear protects you.” 

How could fear protect him? It was bad, and made him weak and he couldn't do anything at all to help the ones he loved and his mother would die, and his little sister would never be born, and his father would go to jail, or worse be shot by the police. 

“Your fear makes you stronger, but only if you don't let it paralyze you. Fear tells you what is dangerous, and what you can change. Do you want to change what happens here?” 

More than anything he wanted to change what was happening, he wanted to protect his mother, and his sister, and he wanted his father to be safe too, to stay with them. 

“Then get up, and face your fear. Face me.” 

Jamie looked up as the voice growled, into the dark blue eyes of the monster in the closet, the tall teenager with dark eyes, wild long black hair, and devils horns. The boy who had soothed him when he was frightened, and was going to help him change his Nightmare. Jamie gulped, trembling but forcing himself to uncurl and stand up. His legs were shaking, and his stomach was in knots like he was going to throw up, but he didn't back down. 

“What... what do I do?”

The horned boy grinned, his hooves clacking the floor as his eyes seemed to light up. It was terrifying to see, like the devil himself taking an interest, and Jamie whimpered despite himself. 

“Face your Nightmare,” the boy, Jokul Frosti, told him, and Jamie nodded, looking at the closet door and whimpering again as he heard his mother scream. “Remember, its not real here, but it's important. You'll only have one chance, I can only help you once.” 

“Help me?” Jamie scrunched his face as he thought about that, wincing one more time. “You're going to help me change the Nightmare.”

“Yes. Your Nightmare is my domain.” 

“Who are you?” Jamies voice trembled as he asked, but he had a feeling that the answer was imporant, and the way the boys smirked, showing sharp fangs behind his pale lips, gave credit to the thought. 

“I'm Jokul Frosti, The Nightmare King, and this Nightmare should not be yours.”

* * *

Jokul gasped and leaned forward, shaking at the sheer amount of power it had taken to change the course of Jamie's nightmare, or rather to give Jamie the power to choose his Nightmare. He hadn't expected it to be so hard, to warp the nightmare away from the horrifying twisted creation of the curse and back to something more natural and healthy. 

Nightmares weren't supposed to be evil, they were a humans way of coping with anxieties and fears that would overwhelm them when they were awake. This paralyzing caricature of fear infuriated him, but at least he had figured out how to give Jamie the tools to help himself. The red mist was still on his breath, but the bruises on his arms were no longer getting darker, which was better than Jokul had thought he could hope for when he hadn't been able to affect the curse. 

“Hey, you look like shit,” Jack said from next to him, and Jokul looked up from Jamie's face in order to scowl at his other half. 

“That's nice. Thank the powers that be I don't feel quite that bad,” was the Nightmare King's response, as he stood back from the child, stretching his long limbs in an attempt to get some feeling back into them. “Changing the cursed nightmares is hard, but giving the children the tools to change their own nightmares may be the way to go” 

“Like you gave this one a Nightmare to help him out?” Jack's question made his other half scowl, but Jokul couldn't deny that was exactly what he had done. It probably wouldn't last long, and he didn't see how he could invade every cursed child's nightmares and set them on the right path quickly enough to have any kind of turn around in the curse, but reminding Jamie that there were other things to fear, that he had good memories of his mother and his little sister, even after his father had gone to jail for a little while, had worked wonders. 

“I just don't see how I can go into each nightmare and remind the kids that there's other things than what they fear, as odd as that is.” Jokul growled, glaring at the nurse now taking Jamies pulse. She couldn't see either of the Frost boys, so they were for the most part ignoring her. 

“Ooh, now that's a good idea. Tooth is the Guardian of good memories right? Why not just ask her to help out?” Jack was bouncing in excitement as he shared the idea, and after a few seconds Jokul started laughing. 

“That's brilliant! I'll head to Tooth Palace to ask her about that! Did you find any other leads on who might be behind this?” 

“Between the red mist and the odd feline shapes its making, I'm going to head over to the Snow Court's library to look it up. I'm pretty sure I could ask a couple of the Snow Maidens to help me out,” Jack winked as he spoke, and the Nightmare King had to roll his eyes. 

“They adore you, I know.” 

“No, they adore both of us. Get to Tooth Palace, I'll meet you there if I find anything.” 

“Good luck, and all that jazz,” Jokul grinned at his other, tossing off a small salute before slipping into the shadows. Even in a brightly lit hospital there were shadows enough to move around by, so he never saw the flickering red mist on Jamies breath begin to coalesce.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So yea... double update bonus, this and Invicta :3

The feel of the sand and shadow Nightmare carrying him through the wind, cool and warm, was a freedom that Jokul indulged in even as he worked his way towards the hot jungle that hosted the Tooth Palace. It was a very long flight, but if Tooth could do anything to help the children it would be well worth it, and when he had a wind at his command he could make the flight faster. 

Of course, Jack could use the winds to travel much faster with his own flight propelling him along, but Jokul couldn't quite travel that way. Still, he had his own set of shortcuts, using the shadows in the night time half of the world to get as close as he could before he had to fly. It was efficient and quick since they were on a tight time schedule. 

With more and more children falling prey to the curse, he considered himself on a very tight time schedule indeed. 

He didn't expect to find more than the usual level of chaos at the Tooth Palace, considering he visited often enough to see Baby Tooth and make new friends among the mini fairies. They all seemed to like his bright teeth, even if he did have fangs, so he was normally well received, the same as Jack. 

All of the fairies were busier than ever though, flitting here and there, and none of them gave Jokul the time of day as he looked for their Queen and mother. 

When he found her in the highest tower, rattling off instructions to her fairies, he approached with respect. He was a frequent informal visitor, but this was not an informal occasion, and instead of minding his own business as he normally did, he was searching Tooth out to ask for her help. 

He slid off his Nightmare mount carefully, and approached where Tooth hovered, calling out instructions to her minions with abandon, lost in her work for now. The little fairies were used to him, and flitted around him instead of taking his appearance as something unusual. 

It wasn't until Baby Tooth landed on his shoulder, asking him why he was here that he had the opportunity to speak and explain himself. 

“I've seen the inside of the curse, and I'm hoping that Lady Tooth might be able to help us figure out how to end it.” He explained to her, watching as she nodded excitedly and flittered over to Tooth, chirping at her for a moment before the Guardian noticed that Jokul was there. 

She fluttered to where he stood, an odd look on her face before she spoke. 

“Jokul. We do know you aren't the one hurting the children,” Tooth started, obviously prepared to make an appology for her erstwhile co-Guardians before Jokul cut her off. 

“I'm a Fearling, Lady Tooth,” he made the statement as if it were something that held no importance, like saying the sky was blue. “I'm here to ask for your help. I've tracked the curse to the first child who got it, and after examining it from the inside, I think you might be able to help fight it. My power is a stop gap measure against the darkness, and Sandy's power actually makes things worse. Even dark things can be wonderful, terrifying but wonderful, and Jack only has as much power over the cursed night-terrors as I do. Memories though, especially good ones, might be a more viable option for fighting the curse.” 

Tooth blinked as he spoke, looking a little confused as she listened before her eyes lit up when she understood what Jokul was getting at. “You want me to activate the good memories of the cursed children, in hopes that it will help them battle the curse on their own?”

“Yes, better to give them the tools to protect themselves than fail them completely,” Jokul said softly, sighing and looking down. “I know that the Guardians get a lot of their power from belief and protecting the kids, but in this case it cant hurt to let the kids protect themselves, especially since I cant think of any other way to protect them.” 

“Oh Jokul, what do you think a Guardian actually does? We teach children the importance of always seeing the wonder, dreams and hope of the world around them, and how to remember the good times even in the bad. This is exactly what we do,” Tooth stated, smiling as she approached Jokul, pulling him into a hug. “I really am sorry about the misunderstanding at North's workshop. He's not always good at expressing what he means, but none of us meant to accuse you of anything.” 

Jokul had mixed feelings about that, accepting Tooth's hug for a moment before pulling away and looking at her with a sigh. 

“I understand, Tooth, really I do. But I am a fearling, something that you vowed to protect the children from,” Jokul's scowl made Tooth flutter nervously, but she nodded, before looking away. 

“Remind me to tell you about the Sisters of Flight someday, Jokul. Not everyone is exactly what they seem to be. Now, you said I need to activate the good memories of the children who are cursed. Take Baby with you and have my fairies pull out all the boxes for the affected children, we'll keep tabs on who is affected that way.”

“Why should I go with her? Wont I get in the way?” 

“Oh Jokul, I know memories, but you know the curse. I can't tell which boxes belong to the affected children, but I'm betting you can. Go, if it doesn't work we'll think of some other way.”

* * *

Jack couldn't see the curse quite the same way as his other half, barely seeing the red mist on the breath of the affected children, but when he saw the fine red mist start trailing away, he knew something was definitely up. 

“Well well, what is this?” He asked, scowling as he poked at it with his staff. “I'm pretty sure you're not supposed to be happening.”

When it made a chuckling sound at him, all Jack could do was wince, because it sounded like a cross between Pitch Black on a really bad day, and a hyena. Even though he was poking at it still, he didn't expect it to try to talk to him. 

“PoOR HAlf FEARling boy. All ALOne, all alONe, tRAPped bY yoURSelf.” 

“Oh you're not creepy,” Jack's automatic response to the creatures words tamped down his own unease, and he managed not to shudder at the hundreds of voices speaking both in and out of tandem. “You're from the curse, right? So what are you? Pure malice directed at the innocent kids? Some kind of anger or voodoo thing?” 

“Oh JAck, JaCk, JACK,” it hissed, and this time Jack couldn't stop the shudders running through him. His name sounded so wrong as they spoke. “NoTHIng so tAWDy. ThE HUmaNs haVE foRGOTten WHat TRUE feAR Is, aNd iT's aLl yoUR fAUlt. We NEed tO TEach thEM tHe trUE meANIng, thE fULl mEANing of FEAR, leAD tHEm BAck tO THe frIGhtENEd shEEp THat thEY aRe supPOSed tO Be, aNd DestrOY, dESTRoy desTROy anY HOpe Of RedeMPTioN.” 

“Redemption? Like, the courage to face fear and come out a better person for it? I don't think that's your choice to make,” Jack couldn't keep the rage from his voice as he spoke, a sneer on his features. 

“No, wHo carES iF THey haVE coURage? CouRAGE BreAKs FIRst wiTH oUr MIght pResSIng iN,” The mist seemed to vibrate, wrapping around Jack's staff and he quickly pulled it away, scowling more deeply. He had to find out exactly what it was doing, what part it played in this curse. 

“Then what do you mean by redemption?” 

“JOy, oR haPPinESs, or GOod MEMoriEs. Oh YEs... wE KNow WE kNOw wE kNOw WHere tHe otHER haLf iS, tHE fEArliNg hALf. It wON't woRK,” the creatures laughed again, the sound's grating against all of Jack's nerves. “WE KnoW wHat hE PLAns wiTH tHe wOmAn oF MEmorIEs, aNd It wILl NoT wORk.”

“What do you mean? You hope to stamp down on all the good memories the children have? They're going to make the kids remember that the world is more than fear and pain.” 

“Oh they'll Try tRy TRY buT thEY wilL FAIl horribly and you can do nothing to help. When they open the memories, WE will come pouring through and DESTROY them.” 

“You'll come through the childrens memories, to the Tooth Palace?” Jack felt himself blanch at the news, a thin tendril of panic trying to grip his heart. 

“We wIlL coMe thrOUgh aS mORe thAN Mere mISt, We wiLL coME thrOUGh iN ouR trUE FOrm, oUr mIstRESs wiLL bE plEAseD WHen wE dEStrOy THe pLAce of MeMORies, ANd iTs GuARdiAn!” 

Jack could feel his power rushing through his body, fueled by rage and anger, and he lashed out, swiping his staff, charged with the deadly winter chill, through the creature, determined to destroy the mist. It laughed at him, taunting and teasing and undulating in the air, its mist incorporeal as it moved. 

“YoU WIll fAIl, ANd wE wiLL fEAst,” It moved away from Jack, and towards the rest of the sick ward, where other children hadn't yet fallen to the curse. 

“No, you wont.” Jack grinned, forming a snowflake in his hand, a flake charged with as much joy as he could dredge from his core. If it was scared of good memories, and determined to destroy them and Tooth, then a dose of Happy Flakes ought to make it slow down at the least. 

He didn't expect it's shriek when his magic charged snowflake touched it, sparks of his power dancing through the mist, as it shrieked. Some of the children, the ones not under the curse already, shuddered, looking up to see the lights of the hospital flicker as it fought against Jack's power. Then it was gone, and Jack grinned, before racing for the nearest exit. 

He had to get to Tooth Palace, now.

* * *

Jokul stretched, looking at the large stack of Tooth Boxes they had amassed checking for the curse. The guardian who ruled Tooth Palace had been right of course, Jokul knew exactly which boxes marked children who had been affected by the curse, and now they were all gathered together. 

“Wow, that's a lot of them. Are all of them affected?” The disbelief in Tooth's voice was less a slur on his abilities, and more because she didn't want to believe that this many children had already been affected by something they couldn't figure out. 

“Yes, Tooth, they are,” Jokul said, trying to keep the bite out of his tone. Just because she didn't mean it as a slur against his abilities, didn't mean it hadn't felt that way. 

“There's so many of them,” There was a sort of despair in her voice, and Jokul huffed, unable to keep himself from rolling his eyes. She had to know that good memories weren't the only memories, especially since the curse seemed to be feeding off of bad ones. 

“Come on, Tooth, let's get started,” Jokul said with a grin, promptly stepping back. As a creature of fear and nightmare, he had a feeling that being too close to this particular process would not help. 

“Right then, come on girls,” Tooth stated, moving towards the stacks of Tooth Boxes with her mini fairies, even Baby Tooth wading in and activating boxes to send good memories out to the cursed children. 

“Tooth stop!” Jack's voice was just a little late, as the last of the tooth boxes on the pile began to glow with activated memories. 

“Jack? What's going on? I thought you were going to start checking libraries for information?” Jokul asked, confused as his other half landed, cursing the way that the fearling half normally did. 

“I did, but I got a better source of information, and it planned on coming through the active tooth boxes of the cursed children,” Jack's explanation had Jokul blanching, although Tooth looked quizical. 

“That's impossible Jack. Once the children loose their teeth its only a one way bond. Nothing can come through from the children except memories,” Tooth sounded sell-assured, but her wings fluttering nervously spoke for themselves. 

“I hope you're right tooth, but I don't want to take any chances, is there any way to close down the boxes?” Jokul asked, less than willing to risk anything happening to tooth palace. “Jack what did your source of information say it was planning.?”

“The red mist in the hospital, it said it was planning to come through the memories like a gateway, more complete than it was from the children, and destroy Tooth Palace and all the good memories it contains,” Jack stated, keeping his eyes on the tooth boxes, and narrowing his eyes to a glare as a fine red mist began to seep out of the pile. 

“Well, Fuck,” was Jokul's contribution as he looked at the lion like shapes that began to form, not liking the menacing chuckles coming from them. He liked it even less as the first one finished forming and immediately lashed out at the fairies close to it, swiping three of them out of the air before Jack's ice froze it in place. 

“YoU CaN Not wIN we wILl dEVOur ALl, wE wiLL dESTroy ALl GOod mEmoRIEs!” They roared as one, and Jokul growled at how discordent their voices were, even as more of them began to emerge from the red mist now pouring from the tooth boxes. 

“I don't think so,” the Nightmare King growled, reaching out and summoning every Nightmare linked to his power. The flood of black dream-sand horses was immediate, the sand trickling in from every horizon and forming into Nightmares atop every rocky outcropping and available surface surrounding the palace. The black horses, most of them covered in fine frost decorations, looked on with brightly glowing blue eyes, even as the red lions roared, apparently not having expected to see this kind of opposition. 

When the Nightmares whinnied in reply, the lions roared again, inviting the black horses down and into battle. 

“Tooth, get what you can out of here,” Jokul's voice was a command, sudden and insistent, as he looked at the ranks of red mist lions forming up. “We'll do our best to get rid of these guys, but save as many of the teeth as you can, and don't let any more of your fairies get caught up in this.”

“We can fight too, Jokul,” Tooth stated, her feathers fluffing out in agitation as she glared at the mist creatures. 

“I know, but they're after you right now. Please, let us protect you Tooth. We need you to be able to help the children,” Jack's words made her glare at him before she slumped. “Besides, aren't these memories all that's left of so many? Save them Queen Toothiana.” 

“You don't play fair, Frost,” Tooth growled at him, before darting into the air, directing her fairies to get the teeth and begin to evacuate them. 

As soon as she sprung into action, the Lions made their move, all of them surging forward to attack her, only to be blocked by a seemingly solid wave of Nightmares. They clashed with the Lions, a dozen or more of the horses to each of the mist creatures, but being more substantial, had a hard time doing damage to the Lions. 

Time narrowed down to action and reaction, and both Jokul and Jack found themselves in the thick of the fray. Ice and shadow were along side Jack's happy flakes, and a bit of experimentation proved that Jokul could frighten the red Lions into the hooves of the attacking Nightmares. 

It took a lot of Nightmares to affect any of the Lions, and there were roars, whinneys, and the squeak of the occasional fairy trying to get through without getting caught in the fighting. It was chaos, and both Jack and Jokul were thriving, and although it took half a dozen Nightmares to subdue a mist Lion, they had the numbers to do it. 

The incorporeal mist left over when the Nightmares defeated the Lions started to become a problem though, chuckling in a manner that made small hairs on the boy's necks rise, and the feathers on the fairies fluff up. It would have been adorable, if they weren't in the middle of a deadly battle. 

“YOu CANnot wIN, yOu caNNOt deFEAt Us. YoU wILl DIe heRE,” all of the voices in the mist were laughing and screaming and whispering, and Jokul took just a moment to admire the technique, even as he took stock of the situation. All of the mist was gathering around the supports of the palace, the lions keeping the Nightmares busy even as the architecture started to crumble. 

It took about six seconds for all of the Nightmares to change their tactics, scooping up vast amounts of Tooth Boxes while a few of them kept the Lions from attacking the ones now helping the Tooth Fairies evacuate. Laughter rang through the canyon that housed the palace, the red mist chasing at the retreating Nightmares, trying to capture them before they made it out of the mountain that housed the palace. 

Jokul grabbed Tooth, forcefully dragging the Queen away from the palace despite her cries of rage, despite his own pain as blue ice magic and pure joy kept at bay the mist reaching for them. He wasn't looking back, didn't see with his own eyes as the palace crumbled, the mountain housing it falling to rubble. With a final crack and laughter that rang for hundreds of miles, Jokul knew that Tooth Palace was gone, and Toothiana had watched the whole thing from the back of Jokul's Nightmare, with the Nightmare King's arm around her waist keeping her from flying back into the destruction. 

He didn't dare let go of her now, knowing that it was too dangerous, and that Jack had stayed behind to make sure that Jokul could get her out. They had saved the teeth, and they had saved the fairies, even their Queen. 

They hadn't saved Jack.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To Americans: Happy Thanksgiving :3 
> 
> To everyone else: Happy black Friday eve. 
> 
> To all in sundry: New chapter, yay!

It wasn't that North didn't like the Nightmares, although he wasn't overly fond of them, nor was it that he was overly busy at this time of year, although it was only a month and a half until Christmas so he was. No, what was really irritating him was the way that the fallacious monstrosities were charging through the workshop, disrupting everything and sending both yeti's and elves flying. 

“What are Nightmares doing to my workshop!!” he yelled, much to the amusement of Sandy who was clapping as he watched the Nightmares wreak havoc. “Stop, stop what you are doing and go back to Fearling Boy and Snow Sprite. You are horrible... what are you doing? Sandy, do not laugh, tell it to put me down!” 

Needless to say, North was unamused as the Nightmare deposited him on the back of a different Nightmare, and even though he tried to roll off, he ended up clinging to the creature's neck as it accelerated. He couldn't hear the Dream Weaver, but he could feel Sandy behind him, laughing all the way until the nightmare pushed through a shadow and into the Lair of the Nightmare King. 

North had only been here a few times, but the last time he had been here he had helped clean out the last tenants things, in other words getting rid of the last remnants of Pitch Black. Things had changed since then, and there was definitely the feel of Jack and Jokul, something cheerful and fun about the way the shadows reached out to scare. There was no getting rid of the odd stone architecture, but there were frost statues and soft blue witch lights presumably made by Jack to soften the shadows, making them more playful than sinister. There was furniture, soft fluffy couches and a few tables with what looked like projects both sinister and benign on them. 

The changes were astounding, but it only took North a moment to realize the differences in the Lair now and how it had been when last he saw it. 

What he focused on though were the children's tooth boxes piled high on every surface and the thousands of mini-tooth fairies flitting here and there, not pleased with the way things were organized. They were also still heading in and out through small openings made in the shadows just for the purpose of letting them come and go, which was more than enough to set North on alarm. Sandy was no longer laughing, and as the wild Nightmare he was riding finally came to a stop, the old Cossack threw himself off of it, his voice loud and demanding attention. 

“What is going on here? Why are tooth fairies in Fearling Boy's lair? Where is Tooth, does she know...” he was interrupted by a fast moving green blur and suddenly found himself with an armful of sobbing Tooth, which took more precedence than worrying about the Lair. “Tooth? Мой возлюбленный what is wrong?” 

“Tooth palace was destroyed,” the words were calm, measured, and came out of the shadows directly above them, the empty wicker daybed hanging in the shadows with dark pillows and obviously empty. “Jack's gone, alive but taken by the bitch that destroyed Tooth Palace, and I'm going to shred her for daring to touch what's mine.” 

North was taken aback by the pure rage in Jokul's voice, the unfamiliar way that the boy was speaking too formal, and too cold for him to really process right away. He lost strength to his legs when it finally did process, and he found himself colapsed on the floor holding Tooth and rocking her as she sobbed into his jacket. 

There was something dark in his eyes as he stepped out of the shadows, darker than usual even for the Nightmare King. 

“What has happened, Кошмар король? Where is Bunny? I am certain he will be just as eager as you to get Jack back from whatever has taken him,” North's words were confident, even though he felt like he was about to pass out. “We will begin plans for rescue immediately.”

“How? We don't even know where he was taken!” Jokul's voice lashed out, loud both from him and from every shadow in the enormous cavern. It only took a few moments for Jokul to once more get ahold of himself, but it was enough to worry North even more. 

“He stayed behind, and deflected the demons to keep us safe,” Tooth stuttered, her tears finally slowing as she grippe tight to North. “I was so angry, and so scared, if Jokul and Jack hadn't been there I would have been killed by those creatures.” 

“ой моя прекрасная любовь, I am sure you did all that you could,” North stated, his hands rubbing soothing circles into his love's arms. 

“All she could and more. Where the fuck is Aster?” Jokul demanded, pacing on the edge of the shadows while Sandy hovered nearby, obviously unsure of what to do to help. 

“Right here you starkers drongo,” The Pooka said, emerging from a hole that closed itself in the ground, a single nightshade plant sprawling where he emerged. Strange things happened to his plants when he came to the Nightmare Lair, and North began to understand as he looked at the small plant. 

“We have to go rescue Jack _right now!_ ” the Nightmare King stated, almost flying to Bunny before clinging to the six foot tall rabbit with zeal. 

“I'm with you there. Where is he? We'll get him back right quick and in a hurry,” Bunny declared, and Jokul deflated in his arms, and North winced as he heard the boy sob. 

“We do not know, Bunny. We are going to have to find out fast though.” 

There was no way that North was going to admit that he felt his heart breaking as he looked at Jokul, who seemed so strong and arrogant usually, breaking down in Bunny's arms.

* * *

Aster didn't know what to do, one of his mates was missing and the other was definitely not taking it well. “Its okay, Jokul, we'll get through this. We'll find Jack, we'll put a stop to the bastard that took him and destroyed Tooth Palace, and we'll fix this.” 

“How, Aster?” the half fearling's words were barely a whisper, but Aster had good hearing, even before his mate cleared his throat and pulled away from the tight grip Aster had on him. “How are we supposed to fix this. The good memories from the tooth boxes were supposed to help break the curse, but only opened up the way for those bitches to cause even more trouble, and it's my fault because it was my idea.” 

Aster pulled Jokul back into his arms as the boy's voice broke, long arms tight around the raven haired boy's shoulders. “We'll come up with something. There has to be a way, yea? Something we can do to find Jack, and find out who cursed the sprogs. When we find that out, we'll be able to do something about it, preferably something permanent to keep the sprogs safe and bring Jack home.” 

“You are quite the optimist, Pooka,” the words were cold, and the sudden six inch layer of snow over everything was even colder, jagged ice crystals forming the shapes of winter animals and birds, while cold hardy plants sprung up around the woman talking. The wind of a winter storm was slow to dissipate, tugging curly black strands of hair in all directions and throwing even more snow around in the lair, much to the delight of the Nightmares and the dismay of the tooth fairies taking shelter behind or under the furniture and some of the Nightmares. 

“Why thank you Sera, it comes with being the Guardian of Hope,” Aster said, rolling his eyes before frowning at the tall, pretty woman with golden eyes. Mother Nature was wearing a white gown that defied expectations, looking so simple at first glance, but with white embroidery and clear ice crystals forming subtle patterns that entranced careful eyes. There was also a look of worry and sadness on her face. 

“Good, you'll need all the Hope you can muster,” she stated simply, looking over the gathered Guardians and Jokul. “I know what has happened to Tooth Palace, and who has taken my Winter Herald. The Demon Goddess Lamashtu far overstepped her bounds when she dared lay hand upon one of my Heralds.” 

With a voice filled to the brim with frozen fury, Aster had a hard time thinking of anything other than his missing lover, so it took a moment for Seraphina's words to sink in, and he found himself honking both in alarm and rage. 

“Lamashtu? Моцарт Бах Иоганн Готлиб Janitsch Франтишек Ксавьер Pokorný!!! Thought we have seen last of that hag after Pitch humiliated her!” North managed to growl, and even knowing that he was reciting musicians, the rage in his voice made the names sound like the most vile curses in the Cassock’s native language. 

“She apparently see's a chance to extend her influence. I think it's time that the current Nightmare King set her in her place,” Seraphina's words were a challenge, and Aster felt Jokul stiffen, straightening up.

When he looked over at his mate, there was a look of fury and challenge on the boy's face, even as he glared at Seraphina. 

“Tell me how to get to this bitch and I'll rip her spine out and beat her to death with it,” his growl held all the tonal resonances of the fearling he had once pretended to be, and all of the rage that Aster knew he had to be feeling at this situation. 

“Why would you act now, Nightmare creature?” Seraphina asked, and the Pooka felt the fur of his hackles rise. He could see a similar reaction from both Tooth and Sandy, while North didn't look so happy either, but like him they probably found themselves immobilized. “You failed to stop her curse before it spread far enough to cause problems, you failed to keep your other half safe, and you failed to teach the children how to fear properly.” 

“Fuck you, Mother Nature,” Jokul's words were unexpected, although the underlying harmonics to his voice were still there along with a surprising amount of pain. “I've done the best I can for having stolen the Title Nightmare King, and it wasn't my job to defend the kids or Jack, he can take care of his goddamn self when he's not being needlessly heroic and you know it.” 

“Yet the children were vulnerable to the curse because they didn't understand _fear_ because you've been holding back,” the wind around her began to warm, melting the snow and ice almost instantly and leaving most of the room covered in massive puddles. None of the Guardians dared interfere yet, although if she made a move to strike Jokul, Aster knew he wouldn't be able to help himself. “You're weak, and too interested in what Lunanoff's puppets think of you to do your job right.” 

“My job, as you put it, will be done how I see fit. If there is nothing the humans need fear, then there is nothing I will push them to fear. Trust me, I know exactly what they need to fear,” Jokul growled, the shadows lashing against the wind, even as the Nightmares started whinnying, all of them agitated. 

Seraphina made a dismissive sound, before suddenly smirking, the wind abruptly dying. “No denial about wanting to impress the Guardians?” 

“I work to impress only two people, and if one of them happens to be a Guardian what of it?” Jokul asked, a smirk on his features now and Aster finally breathed a sigh of relief, hoping that the little display between Seraphina and Jokul was over now. For all that he knew that the woman in charge of all life, weather, and geographic action on the planet probably wouldn't turn on them, it was still distressing when she got testy. “Tell me you know how to get to Jack and this Lamashtu bitch?”

“The Demon Goddess has set up a pocket dimension, and although I cannot enter even to retrieve what is mine, I can send you there,” Seraphina said, and Aster perked up. 

“Well why didn't you say so, let's get going!” He said, only to flinch as golden eyes turned to him with an unimpressed look. 

“Do you think you can really take time off to go to a pocket dimension ruled by a goddess nearly forgotten by humans?” 

“That's not the right question, Mother Nature,” Tooth's voice was far from steady, but the determined woman was standing on her own now, and Aster had to admire her grump. “Rather, can we afford not to go when so many of our charges are in danger?” 

“Ah, so it's about the believers for you?” Seraphina sneered, and Aster surprised himself by letting out an unamused chuckle. 

“Honestly, Doll, does it matter why we're ready to go into that bitch's realm and kick her ass? We all want to help Jack, and we all want to get her out of the way to protect the believers,” the spirit of Nature glared at him as he spoke, before a slow grin came over her features. 

“You're right of course. As long as you retrieve my Herald and put Lamashtu in her place, I could care less what your reasons are,” Seraphina's next words were a surprise, but had Jokul laughing out loud even as the Nature spirit disappeared in a flurry of snow. “Gather what supplies you'll need and meet me outside the lake in Burgess. Hurry though lest I change my mind.”

“Right then... North, we'll meet you at the Workshop after we get our weapons, and take a portal to the lake,” Aster said, grabbing Jokul's arm even as he opened up a hole to the Warren. There were supplies and weapons they needed to get to try to make this upcoming journey not as perilous.

* * *

It was hot, and muggy, and Jack could feel his hoodie sticking to his body from sweat, which was just plain nasty and uncomfortable, even if he was still mostly unconscious. Groaning, he dragged his eyes open, wondering where he could possibly be especially when his last memory was sending a wave of ice to freeze claws of red mist reaching for Tooth and his other half. 

As he struggled back to awareness, it didn't take him long to realize that he was tied spread eagle to a very warm stone wall. A cool stone wall would have been much more comfortable, but the warm one was probably why his hoodie was sticking to his skin, and he made a face as he started looking at the restraints holding him in place. 

“Don't bother, little snow sprite. You won't be able to escape from here.” 

Jack looked up, his eyes finally focusing on something further than six inches away, and he nearly went cross eyed again at what he saw. 

“Lady, do you know what clothes are? Seriously, put some on,” Jack stated, the words escaping him in a growl, right before something hot and heavy struck his cheek, whipping his head around and slamming it into the wall he was chained to. 

“Oh you poor boy. I would warn you that your resistance will only make your time as my guest harder, but I think you're smart enough to figure that out by yourself,” the woman purred, moving close enough to caress Jack's cheek with one of her hands, leaving a trail of blood from her dripping finger tips across his pale skin, much to his disgust. 

He rather thought the glob of spit that landed on her cheek was a good response to that, and it got her to back off, even if her henchman took the opportunity to smack him again. He was seeing stars for several minutes before his vision cleared again. 

“It's just too bad that I don't think you're going to be willing to make this easy on yourself, otherwise your time with me could be so much more, pleasant,” she purred, breathing deeply to show off the thick swell of her breasts, barely held in place by a few scraps of crimson cloth. 

“Probably not,” Jack admitted, chuckling at her, before spitting again to get the taste of blood out of his mouth where he had felt his teeth tear his lip when the henchman hit him. “I'm just too stubborn to do things the easy way. By the way, who the fuck are you and what the hell do you think you were doing tearing down Tooth Palace?” he demanded, which to give him props made her laugh instead of having her henchman smack him again. Seriously, was it a troll or something? Jack just couldn't tell. 

“I, I am fire, death, and plague. I am the Goddess Lamashtu, last of the Summarians, and you will tell me everything you know about the 'Nightmare King', and the shards of Nightmare that he possesses,” she said, taking a seat as a throne formed out of red mist, leaving stains on her white skirt like blood where she sat, the whole of her legs exposed. 

“Uhm. No,” Jack stated, his own sneer firmly in place. 

“Too bad. I was truly hoping you would see things the easy way. Oh well, I suppose this way will be fun too. Flitvar, be a dear and fetch my _tools_.”


	6. Chapter 6

It was taking too long.

That was all that ran through Jokul's mind as Aster gathered his battle supplies, two bandoliers covered in pockets with dozens of exploding eggs tucked away in them, six boomerangs slung through straps holding them at hand but not in the way, and for some reason a small box of chocolate that made Aster grin in a mirthless way.

It was still taking too long, and Jokul couldn't help but pace the length and breadth of the Burrow as he waited for Aster to finish packing. Something in his mind was twitching, like an itch he couldn't even begin to get to to scratch, and it was only getting worse. He was certain later that he would be horrified of what he was thinking and doing, and oh lord had he really baited Mother Nature? Even after all this time, that woman terrified him normally, and yet all he could think of was why was she taking so long to get them to Jack?

Growling, Jokul paced the floor again, deliberately not looking at Aster, his mate and lover. He had to keep reminding himself that he was in love with the Pooka, and that decorating the walls with his blood would be a bad thing.

“Alright, lets go,” Aster finally said and Jokul was astride his Nightmare and following him through his tunnel a moment later.

The pit stop couldn't have taken an hour, and probably hadn't even taken that long, but that persistent little itch inside of his head was growing exponentially, and Jokul was having the hardest time staying patient.

Jokul bounded off of the Nightmare, tackling Aster to the ground, much to the Pooka's surprise. Aster honked in alarm, twisting as Jokul plastered himself to the large leporidae form, and though he didn't try to push the Nightmare King away.

“Jokul? What's wrong?” Aster asked, but before he had a chance to say anything else Jokul's lips were pressed against his, and Jokul felt a lot of the fire under his skin calm down as he kissed his mate, all but trying to crawl into the other's skin. It felt good, it felt grounding, and Aster tasted great.

It took Jokul several moments to pull back, and when he did he mosied over to where his Nightmare was waiting impatiently for him. “Come on, Fluffybutt, we need to hurry!” he called to Aster, grinning brightly at his mate.

* * *

Something was very, very wrong with Jokul. Aster shook his head, trying to clear it after that soul searching kiss his remaining mate had put him through, before wandering off like Aster was the one causing the delay to getting Jack back. “You don't want to race a rabbit, mate,” he popped off automatically, charging ahead and leading the way through the tunnels.

They couldn't afford any delay right now, not any more, and running let him try to ignore the panic rising from his very core as he thought about that desperate kiss. Jokul hadn't felt like he was all there, had in fact been out of control and desperate in a way that scared Aster badly. The fact that the boy's tongue tasted like blood was only one more terrifying addition to an already out of control situation.

He did his best to control his terror, not wanting to make Jokul feel any more antsy than he already was. It was difficult to keep hold of a core of confidence that they would succeed, but he used that as best as he could to mask his fears.

Either it worked, or Jokul was even more out of it than Aster had realized. The Tunnel access hadn't been covered up yet in the North Pole, so it didn't take very long at all for them to make it to where the other Guardians were waiting.

“What now?” Jokul asked, his voice a growl as he looked around at the gathered Guardians and North stepped up with his snow globe. Jokul growled again as North made one last check to make sure that everyone was ready to go, before the Christmas spirit threw the globe.

Aster was the one who growled as they emerged from the other side of the portal, not liking the way that the magic messed with his balance. None of the other spirits ever had a problem with it, just him. It was easier to focus on that than it was to be distracted by the fact that all the shadows around the lake were writhing in the corners of his eye.

Seraphina was waiting for them on the lake, looking up into the sky where a storm was brewing on the horizon.

“We are ready to go save Jack,” North stated, the others nodding as Seraphina turned to them, her long dark hair whipping in wind that no one else felt.

“Lamashtu's lair is treacherous, and hot,” She stated, her voice a whisper and her eyes far off. She moved like wind as she came to them, holding out a silver pendant hanging on a chain about as long as Aster's forearm. “This will lead you to Jack, and lead you home again as well.”

North was the one who stepped forward to accept the silver pendulum, although Aster saw the snowflakes and sigils worked into the metal, magic tying it directly to Jack. It would be their sure fire way to find Aster's missing mate, and he barely resisted snatching it out of North's hand.

No one else said anything for a moment, and Seraphina nodded, before turning back towards the lake. As she threw her hands up, the storm broke, lightning striking at the center of the small lake, and Aster felt all his fur stand on end for a moment as the static of electricity and magic washed through the air. The portal immediately formed, and Jokul and all the Guardians were moving forward even as Seraphina turned back to them, an urgency in her voice.

“Hurry through, and bring my herald home.”

* * *

It was strange to think that hoarse screams really fit in with everything going on in the dungeon, making the red stone walls seem friendly and the flickering fire light became something to be admired. It was atmospheric, and a little bit classy although if Jack was going to write a review he would definitely take points off for the old blood stains.

“Seriously, why not just clean that shit up?” he asked, a wheezing scream letting loose as the lash landed against his bare chest again, his torturer growling at his cometary.

The burly Sumarian had been getting harsher and harsher with Jack's commentary, and Lamashtu had been frowning for a little while as she watched. It was like Flitvar and his 'goddess' couldn't take a joke. Instead of enjoying their little torture session they were getting more and more angry.

Jack was counting it as a win, because the less they enjoyed themselves the less likely they would continue to torture him. If he had to put up with being tortured, they would have to put up with being irritated.

“Come on, all I'm saying is that if you... got rid of the old blood stains this place would be so much more inviting,” the blow to his stomach made him taste bile as he coughed, washing out a bit of the coppery taste that he had been tasting.

“Flitvar,” Lamashtu was frowning deeply, and not looking at Jack the way she had been at the start, instead staring off into the distance. “We have more guests. Be a dear and don't kill my toy while I set up a welcoming committee.”

Jack found himself frowning at her words, wondering what kind of whacko's would bother coming to this place if they didn't have to. Flitvar was grinning though, even as his 'goddess' got up to leave the dungeon, finally stepping away from her blood soaked little throne. Drops of red trailed behind her, and Jack made a thoughtful sound as he looked.

“Oh I get it, your boss makes too much of a mess to keep up on so you just leave it.”

The fist to his solar plexus was well worth the glare that Lamashtu threw over her shoulder at him, and he found himself laughing despite the pain he was in. His chest hurt with each breath, but that wasn't going to stop him from doing his best to infuriate the bitch.

“Well now, Flitzy, what's the itinerary while your mistress is away, probably wanking. The bitch looked like she was getting off on this way more than she should have been,” Jack stated, although he was surprised when the Sumarian torturer grinned at him, moving over to just outside of Jack's field of view before coming back with something that looked like thorns wrapped around a short baton. “You know, I think we should work on your idea of fun.”

It was the last words he managed for a little while, Flitvar growling and shoving a wad of something unpleasant in his mouth to act as a gag before laying into him with the thorned baton.

* * *

The black horse didn't get ahead of him as he explored his misty surroundings, letting him rest his hand on its rough hide as he walked although it had already made it clear that it wasn't going to carry him. Jamie sighed, looking through the thick mist of his dream scape, wondering exactly what he was supposed to do until he woke up.

This place seemed to stretch on in every direction, and for the most part it was scary, not knowing what was hidden in the mist. But the dark boy, Jokul, had said his fear would protect him, would show him what was dangerous, and what could be changed.

This place was wrong, and he would find a way to change it. In the mists, he heard a scream, and with the Nightmare at his side he took off for it, not wanting anyone else to be paralyzed by the terror like he had been before Jokul showed him how to change his nightmare.

The forest he suddenly found himself in was unexpected, but he raced forward, the horse at his side whinnying and charging ahead at the red feline shape towering over a familiar girl. Jamie didn't know Cupcake very well, but no one deserved to be so scared and unable to wake up.

“Cupcake! Cupcake its only a dream! You can change it!” he shouted, running towards her, and if it was odd seeing tears on her face when she was one of the biggest, strongest kids in the neighborhood, Jamie didn't have time to dwell on it.

“Its going... to eat me,” she managed to gasp out, and Jamie spared a glance to look at the red monster, and he shuddered as he heard it roar, but it wasn't real, it was something that could be changed, it was just red mist.

“No, it's not. Cupcake you have to face it! You can face it and win!” Jamie called, determined to find some way to help her.

“How!?” Her voice held high notes of panic, and Jamie didn't know what to do, he doubted that this was like his Nightmare, a terror from when he had been much younger blown far out of proportion.

“Imagine something good!” He finally shouted, running with all of his might but not getting any closer to Cupcake, and he wished that he could find out where the Nightmare had gone.

Then suddenly it was next to him and they were charging forward, the Nightmare standing between Cupcake and the red mist monster, flailing its hooves at the hissing creature, chasing it away. Jamie panted as he dropped down next to Cupcake, feeling like he had just run a thousand miles, but she didn't notice him, not really.

Her eyes were glued to the Nightmare, and Jamie had to admit it looked impressive, and scary, but it was nice and scary was okay. “It's only scary to the mean monsters,” He said, grinning at Cupcake, who looked over at him with wide eyes.

“What is it?” she finally asked, looking back at the Nightmare and Jamie told her.

“The Nightmare King said it was my Nightmare, meant to teach me to face my fears. He's trying to figure out how to wake me up, how to wake up all of the sleeping children.”

Jamie wasn't particularly paying much attention to Cupcake, but it only took her half of a second to be on her feet and hugging the Nightmare with all her might.


	7. Chapter 7

Mother Nature hadn't been exaggerating when she said that this place was hot and it hit Aster like a hammer, the humid heat knocking the wind out of him as he stumbled out of the portal. Tooth and Sandy took the heat in stride, which wasn't surprising considering that Sandy was a star and Tooth had her base of operations in a tropical jungle, but North staggered a little as well and there was an odd frown on Jokul's face as he looked around.

They had emerged on a small peninsula, and as Jokul recovered his balance he wandered over to look at the hot orange sea that bubbled nicely all in front of him. “Well then, this is a little awkward. Why did no one mention that we were going to have a boiling lake of lava? I would have bought fresh pajamas.”

“Frostbite?” Aster felt bile in his throat at how close his mate was to the edge of the cliff that led straight down to the boiling lava. “Could you come over here love?”

“Anything for you, Bunny,” Jokul giggled as he traipsed towards Aster was so very, very out of place and although Aster couldn't help but appreciate having his mate pressed against him and kissing him, right now was definitely not the time or place.

It didn't help that Jokul still tasted like blood.

“We have to go get Jack now, Frostbite,” Aster said, holding on to Jokul and pressing his forehead to the boy's. “I need you to focus... can you do that right now love?”

“I'm insulted, Bunny. I am nothing but pure focus! Lets go!”

Tooth let out a yelp as Jokul headed towards the cliff again, and there was a look of madness in Jokul's eyes as he glanced back with another little giggle.

“Jack is this way,” he finally said, pointing directly over the lava, where there was nothing for miles before a sheer black wall rose out of the malevolently glowing molten rock.

“Nothing is that way, Jokul...” Tooth's voice was soothing, and Aster wondered how things had gotten out of control already. They had only just emerged from the portal and his mate was already losing it, and there was a growing part of Aster that was certain that the only way to make it better would be to recover Jack.

“Actually... pendulum agrees with fearling boy,” there was no boisterous laughter or enthusiasm in North's voice and the Guardians turned as one to see the pendant that North held tugging in the same direction that Jokul was pointing. “I do not think Jokul is wrong, but I do not see how to go that way.”

“We'll fry!” even in the sullen orange light Tooth looked wane, her feathers fluffed out and her eyes wide. She may have had an advantage over Aster who was perpetually in his winter coat after having been mated to two winter sprites for a while, but even she wasn't going to do so well in this heat.

“Boring!” Jokul was giggling again and Aster did not like that sound. “You forget who you're with, and even here, I am the Nightmare King. The whole world slumbers in fear, and though that fear may not be mine, it is here.”

There weren't any deep shadows, not nearby at least, but the small shadows were writhing together, and flowing like sand into ragged shapes resembling Jokul's Nightmares. There were no frost decorations on them, and their edges were somehow more jagged than usual, with an air of malice that seemed frankly out of place on the normally playful mares.

But there were enough of them for each of the Guardians to ride, barring Sandy, who had already grinned and formed a giant manta ray out of his golden dreamsand.

“We'll cross to the other side and see what we find. Hopefully we'll come to Jack quickly,” Aster sighed, looking at the Nightmare that had come up to him. Riding the bloody thing was going to be more uncomfortable than North's ruddy flying sleigh, he could tell just by looking at it.

Match to that Pooka weren't known for their riding skills...

As if reading his mind the Nighmare's form shifted, the sand flowing and coiling until it looked more like a magic carpet than a horse, though it still had an equestrian head and glowing white eyes.

“Thanks mate,” Aster said, trying to feel grateful even if it was something he was going to have to fly on.

“No problem Bun-Bun. Lets go!”

* * *

The peninsula they had emerged on had disappeared behind them long before they saw the castle rising from the middle of what seemed like nowhere. There was no connection with anything else, the castle was just there, no way to get to it aside from flying.

Jokul laughed as he scouted ahead of where his Nightmares carried the other Guardians. Sandy was with him, but Sandy was strange. The others all looked like they had been sitting in a sauna for hours now, even though they hadn't been there that long.

Or maybe they had, Jokul was having a problem remembering how far they had come. His sides hurt, like he had been laughing really hard for a really long time, but nothing about this situation was funny at all.

“So, little man, do you see a way in?” he asked, grinning, though he didn't look over to Sandy, not sure he wanted to see whatever the Star was feeling. “There seems to be an open window but it's fairly high up. Jack's not.”

The problem was, he couldn't see another opening. He waited, and soon the other Guardians, on their borrowed Nightmares, caught up and Jokul looked at his panting, soaked lover with a grin.

“Oh dearest... how many high explosives do you have?”

“You crazy hoon. Not that many. Is there a door to this place?” Aster asked plaintively and Jokul laughed, pointing to the open window.

“Jack's down there though,” he added pointing in the direction of that insistent pull; he needed his other half.

“I don't have enough explosive googies to get through the wall. Find a weak point and I'll see what I can do though.” Aster was panting as he spoke, obviously not holding up well in the heat, and Jokul wished more than ever that Jack was there to help them.

Then again that was circular logic, because if they had Jack they wouldn't be trying to rescue him.

“You heard the rabbit, lets find us a weak point,” Jokul giggled, and the Nightmares began to spread out.

They didn't have to go far; a doorway, a great big medieval looking thing, drawbridge perhaps, began to lower. Soon there was a great big inviting landing place, somewhere to stage their invasion from.

An easy way in, and an obvious trap.

North was saying something in Russian about electric eels and hover crafts, but Jokul was too busy laughing as he directed the Nightmares to land.

The wood of the drawbridge blocked some of the unbearable heat from the lava below, but not enough. Jokul had just the thing though, ice forming where he touched down from the Nightmare's back. His bare toes flexed as he moved forward.

“Knock Knock! Anybody home?” He knew the other Guardians were readying their weapons even as he formed his shadow blades.

* * *

The fearling boy was insane. It was the only explanation for landing at the opening for an obvious trap, but if he wanted to lead his companions to their death's then so be it. Lamashtu was only too happy to oblige if that was the case.

Blood drained down the walls, pooling in the shadows at the entrance to her fortress. Here, at the heart of her power, her warriors were at their peak, formed of the blood of her enemies, and the fire of her power, far more formidable than even those she had sent to destroy Tooth Palace.

The Guardians charged in, and Lamashtu chuckled as her warriors closed to destroy them. Spears of fire, flaming swords, and of course claws and fangs to rend and tear. The Guardians fought smart though, and Lamashtu growled as one of her warriors went down. That wouldn't do.

There was no need to hoard her power judiciously, but ages of conserving her strength had been the only reason she survived long enough to become powerful again. It took only a touch of her power to bring the drawbridge up, even with the Guardians and her warriors fighting on it.

Her warriors were warned, and adjusted their tactics accordingly, but the Guardians were caught unawares, and the little Guardian of Memory took a heavy blow from one of her larger warriors. Her blood would make a lovely addition to Lamashtu's armies.

* * *

Blood dripped from various cuts and scrapes, and Jack's sweater was literally shredded. So were his pants for the most part. What was particularly insulting? He could see his staff, just out of reach against the wall by the doorway, on the other side of the room.

Flitvar was putting his latest toy, a short flail with sharp spikes at the ends of each leather strap, and Jack twitched his toes. There was the beginning of an idea in his head, and it was stupid, but he could see a ring of keys at the burly man's belt.

There was no way he was going to get to them, not with his hands bound high above his head. He grinned anyways at Flitvar's back, before ducking his head, and letting out a strangled sob.

“P.. please... please...” the barest whimper, just this side of broken, and he couldn't suppress the shudder that went through him as Flitvar approached again.

“Please what?” the burly man demanded, meaty fingers grasping Jack's chin and pulling his face up.

“Please grow a braincell,” Jack grinned, ice cutting through the ropes around his ankles before his legs pulled up, the frozen blade between his toes flipping until the point came up, just under Flitvar's chin.

The burly Sumerian seemed frozen with shock, even as blood began to dribble from the wound, several inches of ice shattering in his brain at Jack's will. When the corpse fell, Jack flipped his other foot up, nimble toes twisting till he could start trying keys in the shackles holding his wrist.

The motions he had to go through, trying the different keys in the shackles would have put a professional contortionist to shame, and he was shaking with exertion by the time he found the right key. After that it was a matter of transferring the keys to his freed hand to free his other hand.

He collapsed shuddering, his body spasming after his ordeal, but he knew he couldn't take long. Between cuts, scrapes, bruises, and possibly cracked bones somewhere in his chest where Flitvar had been beating on him, he could barely breathe, and moving was very painful.

But he could sense Jokul again, which meant it was time to get out of here. Wouldn't do at all to let his other half find him dangling like some useless fluff-headed princess and waiting to be rescued.

He would never live it down. It took a moment to struggle to where his staff leaned innocently against the wall, but once he had it in his hands he felt a little more steady, or perhaps it was that he was using the staff more as a walking aid than anything else.

“I'm on my way Jokul...”

* * *

The mist had turned darker and darker, but Jamie and Cupcake were both pressing on, each with a hand against the Nightmare leading them on.

With them were Claude and Caleb, and a few other children, an olive-skinned girl who said her name was Anjali, and an oriental boy who called himself Hui.

There was a red tint to the mist, and Jamie looked around, shuddering.

“I think... I think we need to split up,” he said finally, biting his lip and looking at the other kids. “We need to hurry, but...”

“I don't think that's a good idea.” Anjali shuddered at the thought, leaning against the nightmare.

“We need to. There are too many others who need help, and we're the only ones who know how now,” Jamie bit his lip.

“We... we could go in groups, right? Instead of alone?” Claude asked, a haunted look in his eyes.

“That's a good idea. I wish she could go with all of us,” Cupcake sighed, her hand petting through the Nightmare's mane.

The horse whickered, sounding almost amused, before melting to the startled cries of the children around her.

A moment later though there were three smaller Nightmares, all with glowing blue eyes.

“Right... Claude and Caleb, you go together. Cupcake...” Jamie started, but Cupcake was already grinning and moving over to where Anjali had her hand on one of the smaller nightmares.

“Us girls have got to stick together,” she said in explanation, almost defiantly, but Jamie only grinned and nodded.

“Right, that means we're together Hui. We can do this. For the Nightmare King!”

“For the Nightmare King!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yea... I lost my mojo... i'm currently stealing more though so hopefully we wont have such a long break between this chapter and new ones.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: This chapter does not contain Fearling boy or Frost boy. So that cliff hanger last chapter? I'm going for an Evil Authors record. 
> 
> In all seriousness I've been planning this one since long before my hiatus so lets have a look at some of the other characters in this verse. Which might be why this chapter is so short...

Chapter 8

Katya paced in her study, the the window open to the gardens around her palace. There was a sombre air hanging around today, even though it was bright and sunny. There was a fresh coating of snow, and the gardens were pristine, but no one was walking the gardens, or playing any of the winter games available to her courtiers.

Sighing, the Snow Queen took a pull from the flask sitting on her desk, trying to ignore the fact that she had closed the window that let her husband look into her kingdom. She hadn't closed the doorway that let her step between her realm and his, the ice mirror still stood in her rooms, but she had thrown a blanket over it when she returned.

Máni was being a stubborn ass, and he had been getting worse lately when it came to their son, the share soul Jack and Jokul. More and more he insisted that the fearling aspect of what had been done to him was corrupting what was left of their son.

How could he not see that without the fearling aspect, they wouldn't have a son anymore? Katya growled to herself as she took another pull from her flask.

Her son was in danger again, and her husband wanted her to stay away. His reasoning had appalled her, and less and less she felt he was the man she had fallen in love with. She had made it clear after he spoke that there would be absolutely no 'trying again' if Jack and Jokul died or were otherwise removed from the situation.

As the first born, they were Máni's heir as well, no matter how much he wanted to deny it. Nothing they had done had negated that magical claim, and nothing that could be done to them would despite her husbands recalcitrance.

Sighing, Katya took one last pull from her flask before setting it aside for good. Determined, she moved to collect her coat, a well made and tailored garment far removed from what she had worn when she was young.

She met Usurus in the stables, where the brownies had already saddled the great white bear.

“Thank you my friend,” she murmured as she took her place in the saddle, glad that her friend was willing to bear her.

“Lyse will fly with us, but we can only go as far as the entrance to her sanctuary,” Usurus stated, and Katya nodded as he set off at a ground eating pace. For being so large and seemingly ill suited to moving fast, the great bear could cover quite a bit of ground, and it wasn't long until they had left her realm.

Lyse flew above them, keeping watch for any who would dare impede their way. Both Lyse and Usurus had been her companions since long before she had taken up the mantle of Snow Queen. For this journey, she was glad they were he only companions.

It didn't take long to reach Mother Nature's sanctuary, and it took far too long. Katya knew she was a mess of nerves when she arrived but did her best to calm her stomach as she left her friends and entered the sanctuary of one who had once been a friend.

Mother Nature's sanctuary was like nowhere else, plants in all states of life from saplings of spring, to weary fall giants, even to fallen and rotting trees. The animals were the same, here a rabbit in deep winter fur, and there a fox in a summer pelt. This place had always been fascinating, and even now Katya felt wonder at everything around her, while she was on such a serious mission.

She passed through the outer sanctuary, and into the rooms within. Mother Nature was waiting for her, and Katya knelt before her before she could say anything.

“You don't have to do that, Katya. You've always been welcome here,” Mother Nature said, and Katya sighed, looking up at her.

“Even after I tried to banish you from my realm? I'm still so angry with you,” Katya said, her voice quiet.

“Understandable,” the dark haired woman sighed, and Katya stood. “I'm assuming you're here about your son again.”

“Yes. I want to retrieve them from the one who kidnapped Jack, and I need your help to get there,” Katya wouldn't let her voice waver, but the glare that Mother Nature gave her was enough to make her knees weak.

“Jokul has already enlisted the aid of the Guardians,” Mother Nature stated, but Katya shook her head.

“They work for Máni. With his attitudes, I don't trust them. I can’t.”

“Then trust me. They'll bring him back.”

“I cant trust you either,” Katya kept her voice soft, though she wanted to rail at the golden eyed woman. “If it hadn't been for your prohibitions I would have retrieved my son long before he had to become a share soul to preserve himself.”

“You would have died going up against the Nightmare King,” Mother Nature's voice was hard, and Katya laughed bitterly.

“So be it, but that would have been my choice. It wasn't even a foregone conclusion and you know it. You owe me, Seraphina,” Katya almost flinched herself when she used Mother Nature's name, and Mother Nature did flinch at the venom in her voice.

“What would you have of me?” Mother Nature asked after the silence had stretched out.

“Send me to where my son is.”

“I can't send you directly to them, but I can get you closer now that the Guardians are in Lamashtu's fortress. There will be fire and death, and I will have no power there to protect you.”

“That's alright, I'll have all the power I need,” Katya answered, her hand resting on the sword at her side, part of her regalia and something she was well versed in the use of.

“If you're ready then, I will open the portal.”

Katya was more than ready.

* * *

Seraphina sighed as the portal closed behind Katya, an ache in her chest and tears in her eyes. They had been friends, before the formation of the Snow Court and after. She didn't want to cry, but she couldn't hold it in.

It began to rain.

“So sad. Who was she?”

Seraphina turned to the doorway, and smiled sadly.

“She was my friend, she is my friend. Even though she's hated me for what I've done. I've tried so hard to protect her...” Sera sighed, wiping at her tears though it still rained in her sanctuary and in the world.

“And in trying to protect her, you've harmed her greatly. Oh my dearest Seraphina, that has always been your way. You'll let your creations fly free, but it hurts you not to give the same courtesy to those you love.”

“And what would you have me do?” Seraphina demanded, anger hot and heady, turning storms to hurricanes.

“Send me to protect them.”

Sera was stunned, and everywhere in the world things just, paused.

“What?”

“It's as I've said. You can't clip the wings of the ones you love, not even me. But you can trust us to protect each other, and your heart.”

* * *

Jamie looked out into the swirling mist. It was changing, slowly but surely, as more and more of the kids took control of their nightmares. The Nightmare traveling with him grew each time more of the kids were freed from whatever curse was holding them, and split into smaller selves every time the kids went their separate ways.

They never went alone, there were always kids in groups of two or more, and there was still Hui with Jamie, as well as three others. When they woke up, they would have to find some way to get into contact with each other.

Until then, they needed to wake more of the kids up. They were making a difference, Jamie knew they were because the mist was changing, but so were the Nightmares.

They were scary, that was what they were supposed to be, but there was an orange tint to them now, and their bright blue eyes weren't as bright as they had been. The Nightmare King was in trouble, and there was something going on that the kids needed to be there for, but there weren't enough of them yet.

“Come on... we still need to hurry,” Hui stated, and Jamie nodded, the other kids following suit.


	9. Chapter 9

Blood was everywhere, which was repetitive and garish. Jack did not approve, especially since it seemed like half the blood was either his or getting all over him anyways. Needless to say, it was annoying.

Still, he was headed the right direction, he could vaguely feel Jokul nearby, getting closer at least. Incrementally, but progress was progress.

It was hampered by the fact that he didn't want anyone to see him, and there were things in the halls, passing too and fro. So far, Jack had always had enough time to slip into cover and hide, or maybe he was just covered in so much blood that he looked like part of the wall. In any case, he hadn't been caught yet, or again, whatever.

He had no intention of letting that streak slip, and he paused, taking a shallow breath and holding it as he slipped behind some garish ugly vase of some kind. These were definitely not hallways meant to hold out invaders, there was kitch everywhere. Vases and suits of empty armor and shit. No paintings, surprisingly, but the whole castle seemed to be modeled after a medieval fortress.

Which was kinda surprising, hadn't the bitch said she was some kind of Sumerian goddess? History wasn't his thing, like at all, but he could have sworn that not only was Sumeria, or whatever, at least half a continent away but also like, a million years before medieval fortresses were the in thing.

He let out his careful breath as the latest patrol of freaks turned around the corner and immediately started coughing. Whole new aches and pains were presenting themselves now that the adrenalin was wearing off, and Jack was pretty sure that the sharp pains in his chest and the blood that threatened to choke him with every cough meant that he had at least one broken rib.

Jokul was never going to let him live this down. That would be fine by Jack as long as they got out of this alive.

* * *

Jokul was laughing, and it wasn't in the normally genial way that the fearling half of his lover had either. It was high pitched, manic laughter that made Aster wish his hearing wasn't quite so good because he could hear the rasping under that laughter. Jokul was in pain, possibly from laughing that way and would really hate his throat for the next few weeks as it healed.

If they made it out of here alive that was.

Boomerangs, googies, and a few specialty Pookan weapons he hadn't really needed since becoming a Guardian were making short work of the enemies trying to kill them, but there were so many of them.

It didn't help that they seemed to be some kind of blood constructs. The Guardians and Jokul were making progress into the fortress, but for every step they took and construct they killed, three more of the damn things re formed behind them.

The blood was also doing things to his nose, and Aster was pretty sure that he was going to be having nightmares about the scent of blood for weeks.

There was red on Jokul's lips, and Aster wasn't certain that it was from the constructs.

On the downside, they were taking far too long and working far too hard for every step forward. The constructs seemed limitless and they were literally everywhere. The fact that they were elbow to arsehole crowded before they got into the Guardians’ killzone made killing them easier, but there were so many of them.

The upside however was that they were taking a while to reform behind the Guardians as they moved forward, meaning as long as they kept moving they had the breathing space to move. With Jokul spearheading they were definitely making progress forward, presumably towards Jack if Jokul's mania meant anything.

They were also taking enough damage that Aster hope they had a real break soon. He had a few remedies on hand for minor cuts and damages, but too much longer and they would cease to be minor damages.

“How much progress has been made?” North shouted, sabers flashing as he traded places with Tooth in the back, letting her take a very brief moment to catch her breath in between all of them.

“Not enough, but he's getting closer,” Jokul said, the high pitched laughter cutting off abruptly as he spoke.

Since it had almost become a soothing background noise, Aster was very nearly startled out of his stance.

“How are you feeling?” Aster took the opportunity to ask, partially because he wasn't certain he was going to get another chance to for a while.

“Soon,” Jokul crooned, glancing back with a soft smile on his face even as his shadow blades lashed out at the blood construct in front of him, shredding it with a splatter, reminding Aster that as soon as he thought his mate had reached maximum crazy, there was always another level.

“Mate, I've gotta be honest with ya, you're worrying me. A lot,” Aster stated, his boomerangs lashing out to shred a few more of the blood constructs.

It wasn't a reassurance when Jokul started giggling. It wasn't the manic laughter of earlier, but it still managed to be extremely creepy and out of place.

Then the constructs started slowing down, acting less like a liquid golem and more like a gelatin if anything. The constructs hadn't made much noise aside from the sloshing and splashing when they were destroyed, however temporarily, which had thrown Jokul's laugher into sharp relief. Now they seemed to all scream as one, before stiffening further, and then they were frozen solid, ice spikes and frost covering all of them.

Jokul was laughing and running forward, ignoring the now frozen blood creatures. Aster just about had a heart attack when the laughter cut off abruptly and then he was reacting and running forward as well.

Jokul was kneeling, and in his arms, Jack was shuddering, gripping tight to the fear spirit with what little strength he had and being gripped tightly in turn.

* * *

North took the opportunity to wipe the blood from his blades as Bunny bandaged Jack as best as he could. Thankfully, whatever Jack had done when he froze them, meant that the constructs were no longer reforming around the Guardians. 

The snow sprite had been tortured quite badly and with the constructs frozen now was probably going to be the best chance they had to get him some medical attention before they sent him home. As soon as Bunny proclaimed the boy stable North was going to open up a portal and chuck both of the frost boys through.

They had Jack back, and now this was no longer his fight. Not until he healed up some and none of them, not even Bunny, could accelerate his healing enough that he would be of any use in this battle. When the boy argued about leaving, that was the exact reason North was going to use to get him through the snow-globe portal.

Without Jack as the driving force, North didn't trust Jokul to be able to remain on track, or for that matter sane. The boy had been getting worse and worse since they had arrived and it had churned North's stomach as he realized how _off_ the boy was.

That might change now that they had Jack back, but North didn’t want to risk it if he had a choice. 

“How is Frost boy coming along?” North asked, finally approaching where Bunny kneeled next to Jack and Jokul. The fearling boy was holding his counterpart while Aster did what he could to clean and bind the wounds he was finding covering literally every inch of Jack's skin. Cuts, bruises, welts, burns, it was all there.

“Stabilizing. Do you have a portal ready?” Bunny responded, looking up with green eyes, and North nodded.

He had never seen his friend so angry before, the pooka's movements short and over controlled to the point of being eloquent in themselves. There was no denying that he was being gentle with the Frost boy, but it was careful and precise as well.

“Da', portal is ready when boys are,” North stated, which immediately drew a growl from the fearling, and his arms tightened around Jack's shoulders.

“While I agree that we need to get Jack out of here before anything else happens to him, I'm not leaving until Lamashtu is dead,” Jokul declared.

The expected protest didn't come from Jack, and North glanced down to make sure he was awake. He was, and blue eyes bright with pain made North wince before modifying and presenting his arguments to Jokul. It was good that he had Bunny's cooperation on this, because it only took them a little while to convince Jokul that he needed to go with Jack.

Then Jack spoke up.

“What makes you think I'm willing to leave while Jokul and Bunny are still here? For that matter do we have a sure way to escape? Because we're in some kind of Underhill pocket,” Jack's voice was weary, and his breathing sounded wet, but there was a fierceness as well.

“Snow-globes work underhill. Not to get in, but have never had trouble getting out,” North stated, pulling one of the globes from the pockets in his sleeves. “Am setting it for infirmary in Workshop.”

“Mates, I wish you could stay here with me. You know I love having you at my back because then nothing will be able to come up from behind me. But you need to recover. I need you to recover,” Bunny had leaned forward to place his forehead against Jokul's, one of his hands cupping Jack's face as he spoke and both boys seemed to deflate a little.

“Bunny, what if something happens to you?” Jokul asked, a quaver in his voice that made North blush. That level of vulnerability was something the fearling boy hadn't even shown when Jack was taken.

“Nothing will. I do have a bit of experience staying alive after all and a few tricks up my sleeves,” Bunny stated, his voice tender enough that North moved back over to where Tooth and Sandy were waiting.

He had a feeling that they didn't have much longer before new enemies waylaid them. They needed to get to Lamashtu as soon as possible so they could end this. 

They had Jack back, but they needed to end the curse on the children before it was too late. 

“North,” Jokul's voice was not happy, and Jack looked positively rebellious as North came back over to them. “We're ready. Throw the portal.”

“Как ты говоришь.”

Setting the portal for the infirmary, North waited till the globe showed the appropriate room before grinning and throwing it. The portal opened, the bright Christmas magic throwing lovely winter colors before solidifying.

But the portal never showed the Infirmary, or indeed anywhere in the Workshop or anywhere that North recognized. Black and red lanced through the bright colors, opening the doorway wider as a blast of searing heat let into the room, melting the rest of the iced over constructs.

Then there were the low thuds of slow hoof beats as something stepped through the portal.

* * *

Cupcake plodded forward in her nightgown, one hand on the Nightmare and the other hand holding one of the younger girls hands. Their group was getting almost large enough to split again, since no one wanted to go alone. Jaclyn was only seven, and the youngest of the children that Cupcake's group had found so far.

The mist had taken an ominous red hue a long time ago, and Cupcakes group had split five times since then, each time into even groups of three. No one felt safe splitting into groups any smaller, and Jaclyn and Anjali had been staying with Cupcake. The older girls had both felt responsible for keeping the littlest one safe.

They were approaching another of the lost kids when their Nightmare whickered, stopping and standing still for a moment. Since she had been herding the kids and trying to hurry them, it was strange that she had just stopped.

Then she let out a piercing scream that sounded like nothing Cupcake had ever heard about from a horse before. The Nightmare reared up, her legs flailing and Anjali pulled Jaclyn out of the way even as the others scattered. Cupcake was torn between trying to comfort the Nightmare and running herself.

The horse probably didn't mean to hurt any of them, but that wouldn't help at all if they darted in under its flailing hooves.

“What's going on?” Anjali asked, and Cupcake could only shake her head as they stood back and watched the Nightmare. It looked like she was going to bolt any moment now, but instead she collapsed, breathing heavy as she finally stopped screaming.

Cupcake was the first to get her courage up enough to approach, and as she placed her hand tentatively on the Nightmare's shoulder, it turned its head to look at her. Its eyes were dull, no longer shining at all, black just like the rest of the creature. There was barely any light, and Cupcake could all but feel the Nightmare's despair.

It took some time, but eventually Cupcake managed to cajole the black horse back to her feet. “Come on... there's a good girl. We need to keep going... we're going to help your master, right? We need to finish this if we're going to help him. Come on... there's a good girl.”


	10. Chapter 10

Fire rolled through the room, scorching the ground as the portal collapsed. Tooth screamed, jumping into the air as she dodged the lightning fast swing of the oversized halberd, slowed only by whips of sand holding it back. There was barely a moment to take in the terrifying creature that had come through North's portal, twelve feet tall at the top of its black armored helm.

The black armor was a theme apparently, covering an equestrian rump although the long solid legs were dark red. The humanoid half in the front was also covered in armor, thick arms wielding the large halberd that was taller than the creature was. A plume of flame came from the back of the helm, and the centaur-like creature's eyes glowed like baleful embers.

Jokul was hauling Jack back and away, but he wouldn't be fast enough to get out of this demon's way and Aster threw himself forward, drawing one of the blades he had bought along and using it to shield his mates. The Guardians were scattered, and Aster hoped they would be able to regroup as he went on the offensive.

_Never race a rabbit,_ he thought to himself, pulling out all the stops. It was hard to keep up with the demon, and even his sword wasn't enough to pierce the thing's armor. He had some better luck hitting the less armored legs, but got burned for his efforts.

The creature apparently bled fire if the gouts of flame coming from the scratches that Aster had managed while avoiding being trampled meant anything.

“Fall back! Run!” North shouted, his swords holding the demon back while the others took his advice, Jokul hauling Jack through the doorway with Tooth and Sandy hot on their heels.

Literally, the fire's were spreading and Aster growled as he grabbed North, throwing a pastel smoke bomb in the demon's face as he pulled his large friend to safety.

Then they were running down the hallway, their brief respite definitely over. There were things in front of them, and Tooth and Sandy took point as the blood demons tried to block their way.

The hallway was narrow though, and there were not nearly as many of their bloody companions here as there had been before. They could go yards before encountering another one, and that was the only reason they were moving fast enough to stay away from the charging four hoofed fire demon on their heels. Aster was slowing it down with explosive googies to the face and had at one point almost managed to trip it with a sticky googie.

That wasn't going to work again because its hooves were on fire now, but it hadn't caught up to them yet so Aster was pretty certain he was doing okay.

Then there was a scream from Tooth, and Aster glanced ahead to see a solid wall in front of them. Despite the heat in the air, it felt like his veins were suddenly full of ice.

There was no way they could take on the demon behind them, none of their weapons had so much as scratched the armor. They needed a chance to regroup to take this thing on, or preferably send it back to wherever it had come from.

“North, if you throw another portal in front of it, do you think it will send it back to wherever it came from?” Aster asked, throwing more smoke bombs in the creature's face.

“Will try! Keep it distracted for a moment!” North shouted, and Aster dashed forward to keep it back.

Hooves, there were flaming hooves everywhere and Aster couldn't see the need for having more than two feet. There was pain as he felt a hoof print sear into the side of his chest, and he narrowly avoided having one land on his head, but he was keeping the demon thing stationery instead of letting it charge after his friends and mates.

It took far too long before North's shout alerted him to get out of the way now, and the heartbeats it took for him to detangle himself from flailing hooves were an eternity.

Then Aster was clear, and North was throwing another globe with a hope and a prayer, and not much else.

A globe that shattered, sparks of magic flying out... and dying before they could form a portal to anywhere let alone back to whatever hell that thing came from.

* * *

There was no time left, nowhere to run, and nothing else that could be done to protect anyone. The wall that stopped them was solid but Sandy hit it as hard as he could anyways in hope of breaking it down.

It wouldn't work, and he turned to fight. The demon couldn't kill him, not like the others, but at the same time there was nothing he could do but slow it down. He was having a hard enough time even summoning enough dream sand to use as weapons, and he threw a whip full of sand into the demon’s face in a last ditch effort to get it to stop altogether.

Far from slowing down though, the creature became enraged, screaming with fire and death on its breath. Sandy tried to stop its weapon, the long pole with what looked like a large axe head on one end, his sand wrapping around it and pushing it back.

It was like using warm butter to try to stop a scalpel.

Then Jokul was there, growling and throwing his black nightmare sand into the effort, and it seemed like they were making progress. Bunny was throwing more exploding googies and there wasn't room for Tooth or North to wade into the skirmish.

There was fire licking the walls of the hall, forward and backward, reaching towards the guardians, a burst of heat melting sand, black and gold, into glass.

That wasn't supposed to happen.

Then the pole's bladed end was flying towards Jokul, faster than even Sandy could react.

Shouts and screams, and it was too much work to decipher what everyone was saying when there was no time.

Jack hadn't been reacting though, he had already acted. Weak and making noises that Sandy didn't like, with his magic depleted so far that Sandy wasn't sure he could ever recover, Jack had already acted.

The blades sank into Jack's chest, hissing and steaming as every throat but Jack's screamed out. If Sandy had a voice, he would have added it to that horrified cry. Jokul was out of the way, shielded by Jack's body, even as Jack reached up and grasped the fiery weapon buried inside of him.

There was a grin on the ice sprite's face, blood dribbling between his lips with a ready laugh and turning to ice that spread forward and up. Soon the shaft of the staff was frozen, and the centaur-like creature screamed.

Ice spread, more ice than the frost boy had magic to produce.

Sandy would have screamed, tried to scream but no sound came out.

Then the demon was frozen solid, and Jack slumped down, letting go of the bladed staff and falling back into Jokul's arms as the Guardians surged in close around him.

“Jack, oh Jackie no, Snowflake no. El-Ahrairah’s balls what were you thinking drongo...” Bunny was talking, his paws on Jack's chest and Sandy saw the Pooka's healing energy pouring into the sprite.

It was like throwing a few drops of water into a raging inferno, it wasn't going to make a difference either way.

“Why?” Jokul's voice was broken, and Jack grinned. Sandy had no idea how the snow sprite was clinging to life, there was no magic left in his broken and shredded body, but somehow he reached up, one hand cupping his other half's face.

“Because I will always protect you. I love you... I love you both...” Jack's voice was so weak as he glanced over at where a sob escaped Bunny before fixing bright blue eyes on Jokul. The rest of what he said was too soft for Sandy to catch as the light started to fade from bright blue eyes.

“Jack.. no, Jack don’t...” Bunny was speaking again, but it was Jokul that leaned forward, sobbing as he placed his forehead to Jack's.

Then Jokul was holding an armful of so much slush. Jack was gone.

* * *

Blue was burned into his eyes, his heart and what was left of his soul. There was so much emptiness and everything was fading to gray and black.

There were words seared into what was left, words that didn't make sense. Cold of gone and death and the lack of life, not the cold of the mere lack of heat for that had never bothered him, seeped into his bones from his fingers to his heart.

Did it still beat? Yes, there was still life there, still bright and green, but it was drowned out by the blue.

Fingers died, black and cracking as they flexed around a simple wooden staff, all that remained along with the words.

There were others, other words that were more incomprehensible than wind through the frozen branches of sleeping trees. No, they weren't asleep, not anymore.

They were dead.

Lips, warm and alive and the green was being drowned out again and black and sand and shadow were one with movement and rage.

The words were seared in, but there wasn't room for them with the burning, frozen need that eclipsed everything else.

There wouldn't be room for anything until the icy need for revenge was purged, but the only way to do that would be to rend and destroy with every heartbeat.

Jokul walked the shadows, drinking in every drop of fear from everywhere as his own strength, and stepped away.

* * *

The Nightmares were different now, darker and sharper and somehow more fierce for it. They rooted the new kids out of the curse with a ruthlessness that bordered on painful.

Jamie looked over to the large Hawaiian boy who had been the last cursed on his group had yet found. Ke-ola had horse tooth shaped bruises on one of his arms, but he was taking it well.

The Nightmare had gotten rough with him when she pulled him out of the curse, but apparently even that was better than whatever he had been facing.

“Are you sure you're okay?” Jamie asked again, looking over at the larger boy.

“Yah, its fine,” Ke-ola said, reaching out to where the Nightmare paced forward with determination. “She's a scary lady, but that don't make her a bad lady.”

“Alright... we should split soon to cover more ground,” Jamie looked around, the red of the mists around them fluctuating with shadows.

“If it’s all the same to you, I think it would be a better idea to stick together for a while,” one of the other kids said, frowning at the menacing forms the shadows were taking.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> reviews make me want to write more faster...
> 
> That being said I dreaded writing this chapter for so long that now that its here... I'm kind of sad.


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please note the changed Tags. I finally put Major Character death up there.  
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> No... no I really didn't... made you look though :P

“Bunny! Bunny we cannot stay here! Bunny we must move, and now. This is not defensible place.” North growled, shaking Bunny's shoulder harder to get the Pooka to snap out of his fugue.

“For crying out loud, North, pick him up,” Tooth snapped her eyes down the hallway. None of them wanted to stay in this little dead end, especially not now that the shadows were writhing.

North was pretty sure that was Jokul's fault, and he was just as sure that he didn't want to get caught by the dark tendrils. The sound that Jokul had let out when Jack turned to slush in his arms was something that North never wanted to hear again. The look on his face as he kissed Bunny had been downright terrifying and for a moment North had been half afraid that the boy was going to kill the Pooka before he faded into the shadows.

There were screams echoing down the hallways. North hadn't known that the blood constructs could scream, or perhaps it was Lamashtu's other servants, if she had them.

“Alley oop,” North grunted, hauling Bunny over his shoulder and following Tooth and Sandy as they set out to find somewhere else to recover from this shock. It seemed that instead of being a rescue mission they were spending more time running and trying to recover.

This entire mission had gone down the drain in a way that he couldn't approve of.

Jack was dead, because of him. North bit back the urge to cry as he walked, growling to himself in Russian and listing his favorite composers of the last century or so.

The thought wouldn't leave him alone though, that if he had just been willing to let Jack come with them instead of trying to send the boy home, he would still be alive. In the brief moments that Jack had been back with them, Jokul had seemed more grounded.

Then North had tried to use one of his portals. He had felt it, even as the magic reached out to find the Workshop something else had grabbed onto it, wrenching the portal to somewhere very much like Hell. North had given his faith to the Man in the Moon but he remembered stories of his childhood, around the campfire with the men who had raised him. Stories of demons and hells.

It was a gut reaction that made him feel ill to contemplate.

“Where are the damn rooms!” Tooth growled, and North pulled his focus back to the world around him.

“What is wrong моя любовь?”

“Hallways, It's all hallways and I can't seem to find a door anywhere. If we could just find a room, some place secure, we could regroup and try to snap Bunny out of whatever state he's in...”

“Not inna state... put me down ya bloody wanka,” Bunny proffered from where he was slung over North's shoulder, though his voice was quiet and his words didn't have anywhere near their usual amount of conviction.

“You can walk and fight?” North clarified, glancing behind him as he waited for Bunny's assent.

“Put me down you bloody ruskie,” Bunny said, with a bit more feeling this time, and North complied.

“There is something else following us, and I am not sure what,” North added, glancing behind again. He really couldn't tell what it was only that it was not like the blood constructs although it wasn't as menacing as the centaur demon.

Thank Máni for that small mercy.

“You worry too much, Catha Klaus.”

Tooth squeaked, backpedaling in the air to collide with North's back where he was turned towards where they had just come from.

“You... you weren't there a second ago, how did you get there?” Tooth demanded as North righted himself and looked to see what had his very close friend so worked up.

A woman stood in the hallway ahead of them, and while she looked human it was hard to believe that anyone they met here wouldn't be one of Lamashtu's. The woman wore white, a white blouse tucked into a pair of light brown pants with soft white leather boots. The woman seemed tall, but there were sharp heels on her boots, stilettos they were called? Sometimes requested by young girls, but not something that Santa Claus would deliver.

“It has been far too long Nicholas,” She said, a soft smile on her face as North tried to place her features. White blond hair lay in a tame braid over her shoulder, and her eyes were blue.

It took far too long for him to realize what she was.

“Katya? Katya Konstantontinov?” North asked, recognizing the snow maiden. It had been over four hundred years since he last saw her, and she had changed far less than he. Then again, snow maidens rarely aged past a certain point, so she did have the advantage. “What are you doing here? This is a horrible place to find snow maiden. You will melt if you stay too long.”

“Oh Nicholas, always more concerned with protecting those around you,” Katya said with a laugh, and Sandy moved over to her, asking something that North didn't catch. “Hmm.. no, I can take care of myself, and I will not leave until I find my sons. They were supposed to be with you.”

There was an accusation in her voice, and North paled as he realized what she was talking about.

“You're... you're Jack and Jokul's mother?” Tooth's voice had a distinct waver to it. “The snow queen?”

“Yes, and I would appreciate knowing why neither of my sons is with you.”

* * *

There were human servants, or if they weren't human, at least that was the form they wore. They screamed like humans, died like something else.

Every terror, every pain and fear down to the littlest anxiety, it washed over him, through him. Their fear was his strength, and with the strength he fed it back into itself, intensifying it and warping it far outside of what it was supposed to be even at its worst.

With this power he could make even the blood constructs quake with terror, unable to move as he destroyed them with the very shadows inside of themselves.

Jokul couldn't hold back and everything in his way died as he searched for the bitch that had kidnapped his other half and started the chain of events that led to Jack's death. Somewhere in the back of his mind, where the blue washed out everything, he could feel his Nightmares.

They were still searching for the children, still fighting the curse from the inside. Jokul wasn't sure it would help. What was the point of waking the children to a world with no joy?

His Nightmares weren't listening. They continued to search out the children, and Jokul wasn't sure why anymore.

It was an idle diversion though as he made his way through the shadows. The Bitch must have realized at least in part what he was doing, because things were getting brighter, and hotter.

That was alright, she had melted the ice in his soul already, and the brighter the light, the deeper the shadow. _The deeper the fear._

* * *

Jamie shuddered as the Nightmare whickered, sounding more and more sinister. He hadn't been afraid of her since the Nightmare King had left her with him, but that was swiftly changing and he couldn't figure out why.

She was more ruthless than she had been in the beginning, but not meaner. It was like she felt they were running out of time, which made sense. Jamie still felt like they were running out of time himself and they needed to hurry and find more of the lost ones.

“Are you okay? Is he in that much trouble?” Jamie asked, running his hand along the Nightmare's shoulder. She was warm, she hadn't been warm before.

She whinnied, and Jamie sighed. The other kids were scared right now, and so was he, but she had protected them this long, she wouldn't turn on them now, would she?

“Come on... I guess it's a little impersonal to call you Nightmare...” Jamie thought about it for a few moments, before grinning. “How about Ichabod? That's the headless horseman, but there's a horse in it. My teacher was reading us the story during reading time.”

The Nightmare seemed to consider it for a moment, before making what sounded like an amused whicker.

“Ichabod it is then!” Jamie said, moving through the mist, he and the other kids safe with the Nightmare Ichabod as they searched for others.

* * *

“You need to have trust!” His words were like salt on an open wound, and Sera growled as she slapped him. They had been screaming at each other for hours now, and she couldn't disabuse him of his idea to follow the others into Lamashtu's lair.

The others had made their choice, and many of them were not under her jurisdiction, and Katya had made her choice to throw in with the Guardians while searching for her son. It had hurt letting her friend go, and it would hurt more when she felt Katya die, but she had no faith that any of them would survive, with the possible exception of Bunnymund.

The Pooka had survived worse after all, but never when weakened by the boundaries placed on him by the Lunnanof.

“I trust that they all die on me eventually! You're the one who taught me that Father!” Her voice was a hoarse scream but there were tears in her eyes even before she saw the shock on his face.

“Sera...” he started, but she cut him off, leaning into his chest to hide her tears.

“Don't, please. Please don't leave me again...”

“Oh my precious Seraphina...” He sighed, his arms coming around her as they had when she was a child, unable to stop him from leaving her.

She could hold him back now, she had more power than anyone on this world including that damn celestial Tzar, but if she couldn't make him see why she wanted him safe she would lose him the same way she had lost Katya and so many others before her.

“Please Seraphina... you know I can't stay here forever. I've recovered as much as I can here and you were never meant to be the one to protect me,” there was a humor in his voice she didn't expect, and she barked out a laugh. “Oh my sweetling, that's my job. Please let me defend your friends.”

Her humor dissolved again as he spoke and she finally bought her arms under his in a true hug, saying without words that she didn't want to let him go.

“What...” his startled question bought her face up, and she looked around, spotting the snowflake hovering in midair. “Why is there a snowflake when your lair is set for the tropical winter and not the polar one?”

Seraphina frowned, drawing away from her father to examine the strange manifestation. It wasn't, quite, hers, but it had a resonance of her power within it. She touched it with her magic, testing it to see what exactly it was, and then her power was being absorbed into it.

With a bright flash of light, and yes she covered her eyes because too much light was simply too much, there was a very confused winter sprite standing in her inner sanctum.

“What... what the hell is going on?” he asked, pale, confused and shaking.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ... yea I did the best I could but if you find any mistakes, let me know, ok.


End file.
